Overview
You can create and share Mods for most Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) games as long as they follow our rules. Read our Mod Policy to check if your Mod meets our guidelines.
Plants vs. Zombies Mod Policy
PopCap loves the passion our players and community members have for the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. We are constantly humbled by the creativity expressed by our community, and recognize that the incredible work by many talented Mod developers is an important and positive contributor to the strength of our community. We created this Mod Policy to share clear guidelines for what modding we support.This policy currently does not apply to Chinese versions of PvZ games.
- Mods can be created and shared for all PvZ games except for any version of Plants vs. Zombies 3. Plants vs. Zombies 3 is the game we’re actively making, so we’d like to keep it just for us for now.
- Mods for premium games that require an up front purchase to play can’t distribute the game files as part of the mod and must require an official, licensed copy of the game to use.
- Mods for free-to-play mobile versions of Plants vs. Zombies can distribute modified game builds (i.e., fangames) if they follow the guidelines on this page.
- Mods can’t be published on platforms where PopCap or EA games are distributed, like App Store, Google Play, or Steam.
- Mods must not be created or distributed for commercial profit.
- Mods must be made available to all users for free.
- Mods can’t be sold, licensed, or rented for a fee, and they can’t contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type.
- Mods can’t be used to advertise any goods, services, organizations, or political campaigns/initiatives.
- Exception: you can accept donations to recoup development costs as long as the Mod can be acquired and used fully without a donation, and donations are not collected within the Mod itself.
- Mods must not bypass official monetization or access gates. You cannot use a Mod to unlock unreleased content, gated content, premium items, currency, or paid content in the live, official, vanilla version of Plants vs. Zombies games.
- Mods must reflect your own original work and must not incorporate or contain any content that violates or infringes any intellectual property rights of any third party.
- Mods and their content should celebrate what makes Plants vs. Zombies unique: a humorous and quirky universe with endearing Plants and funny Zombies. They must be appropriate for the age rating of the applicable PvZ Game (E10+ unless otherwise specified).
- Age-appropriate cartoon-like violence, comedic villainy, and exaggerated comedic scenarios (such as fictional petty schemes or mean fictional characters) are allowed.
- Mods can’t include references to illegal drugs or alcohol, real-world violent or criminal activity, animal abuse or self harm, terrorism/extremism or terrorist organizations, child endangerment, real world figures (living or deceased), societal or cultural conflicts, or politics.
- Mods must not contain content that’s abusive, hateful, harassing, profane, defamatory, discriminatory, threatening, obscene, sexually explicit, vulgar, offensive, explicitly violent, indecent, illegal, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable as determined by PopCap.
- Mods must not collect personal information about players.
- Mods must not incorporate or contain any software or program that damages, interferes with, gains unauthorized access to, or disrupts another's network, computer, or property including, for example, by facilitating denial of service attacks, spamming, hacking, or uploading computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, cancelbots, spyware, malware, corrupted files and time bombs.
- Mods must not incorporate any open-source software that could cause any PvZ Games software to be relicensed under different terms. For example, GPL software, and LGPL software that is not dynamically linked, cannot be incorporated into mods.
- Mods must not be created for the purpose of gaining an advantage in or affecting online competitive multiplayer on EA’s servers or circumventing anticheat software. They must be fully in compliance with the EA Positive Play Charter.
- Mod creators must not promote their Mod in a way that suggests it’s endorsed by, approved by, or affiliated with PopCap or EA.
- You can’t use or modify any game logos, trademarks, characters, or key art to promote your Mods.
- Mods should be clearly marked as unofficial and include a disclaimer, like “This is an unofficial Mod permitted under the Plants vs. Zombies Mod Policy. Plant vs. Zombies game materials, copyrights, and trademarks are the property of Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts and PopCap have not endorsed and are not responsible for the operation or content of this Mod.”
FAQs
Yes, Mods can be created and shared for all PvZ games except for any version of Plants vs. Zombies 3.Plants vs. Zombies 3 is the game we’re actively making, so we’d like to keep it just for us for now.
You can’t distribute the game files of any PvZ game you need to buy to play. Players will need an official, licensed copy of the game to use your Mod. You can distribute modified game files for free-to-play mobile PvZ games as long as your Mod follows our rules.
You can’t publish your Mod on any platform where PopCap or EA games are available, like App Store, Google Play, or Steam.
Mods should be clearly marked as unofficial. Don’t promote your Mod in any way that suggests it’s endorsed by, approved by, or affiliated with PopCap or EA. You can’t use or modify any game logos, trademarks, characters, or key art to promote your Mods.