EA and PopCap Games have announced that Plants Vs Zombies 3 is in development, and that sign-ups for pre-alpha testing are now open.

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Plants Vs Zombies is one of PopCap's original success stories, which went on to spin out into a series of quite successful third person shooters . You’d be forgiven for thinking that we’d probably never see the franchise return to its tower defence style roots, but thanks to an announcement from EA we now know that Plants Vs Zombies 3 is not only in development, but that US Android users can sign up for a pre-alpha now.The announcement itself is very light on detail, with no release date, no mention of Apple devices or iOS, or any hints at what new types of zombie shredding plants we’ll get to put in our garden. Instead, it focuses mainly on getting fans into the pre-alpha, which is currently only available via the US Google Play Store and will require a phone with “at least a Galaxy S7 or higher for specs, with Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or higher.” As with most tests, fans will not be able to purchase microtransactions, progress will be wiped, and - of course - it’s got some bugs. The post also mentions more sign-ups will be offered to fans going forward, so if you miss out today, it might be worth checking back later.For those of you not familiar with the world of Plants Vs Zombies, it is a tower defence game where you are tasked with protecting your house from a host of different zombies, using everything from potato land mines to butter launching corn on the cobs. Using sunlight as a currency, you have to balance what plants you’re going to buy and plant, with stopping wave upon wave of zombie intruders from getting too close to your house or eating your plant defences.If you like gaming on your mobile, take a look at what we thought of Dr Mario’s first mobile outing or our review of the retro inspired Stranger Things 3: The Game.

John is a freelance writer for IGN UK with a love for all things stealthy, ginny and noisy. To set up a game of Spies vs Mercs or hear his less coherent ramblings, get him on Twitter.