EA is publicly disputing the allegations.
Plants vs. Zombies Replanted is slated to launch on PC and consoles on October 23, but some players gained early access through the EA app. Shortly afterward, streams appeared on the franchise’s official Discord, triggering a wave of disappointment among viewers.
Before the leak, EA and the Replanted team had been sharing gameplay clips and artwork. Fans, however, flagged blurred textures and a lack of fine detail, attributing these issues to poorly executed AI upscaling. While this technology is commonly used to modernize visuals from older titles, without hands-on artist oversight the outcomes can look substandard.
Original-game artist Rich Werner also pointed out inconsistencies and asserted that AI upscaling was employed in Replanted to generate so-called “concept” pieces meant to mimic genuine creative work. As an example, Werner shares a disco-zombie he produced in a single evening — yet developers apparently had access to early concept iterations of that very enemy.
Users who inspected Replanted’s files additionally discovered that it appears not to be a full remaster but rather a port of the Windows Phone edition, rebuilt using Unity.
EA, meanwhile, continues to deny the accusations.
Source: iXBT.games