Flappy Bird is officially no more. True to the word of the game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, the app is gone from both Google Play and the iTunes App Store. Unless you already downloaded it, you won’t find one of the world’s most popular video games anywhere.
Nguyen apparently recoiled from the notoriety his game received over the past couple of weeks. Flappy Bird had been atop the iOS most-downloaded chart for some time, but once mainstream American press noticed it, the game became another catalyst for video gaming’s neverending treehouse debate over what constitutes a real game and whether a mobile title deserves a place in the discussion. Flappy Bird‘s barebones style and derivative quality, particularly its visuals, also animated its detractors.
Nguyen, though, last night told a fan that there was a different reason for the game’s removal.
Here, “overusing” seems to mean “abusing” or “addicted to,” but it’s hard to say for sure.
Nguyen was said to have made tens of thousands of dollars a day from the advertising supported app (it was free to download and play.) Intriguingly, another of Nguyen’s games, Shuriken Block, appears to have been removed from Google Play (it still is available on the iTunes store, though Flappy Bird was available there for some time after it was removed from Google Play.)
Shuriken Block, along with three others — Smashing Kitty, Droplet Shuffle, and Ninjas Assault — can still be played on a mobile device with an HTML 5-enabled browser through his studio’s home page.
But Flappy Bird is now gone, apparently forever.
Comments
29 responses to “Flappy Bird Is Gone”
*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*
EA would be all like. Okay now lets charge users per second of playtime.
“Do you wish to purchase more flaps? You may do so at the cost of 1 feather. You may purchase more feathers at the cost of ….”
Thanks EA. That would be just your style.
I kinda feel like I missed out on something by not playing it. Ah well.
I wonder if it was some kind of legal trouble over the resemblance to Mario…
And that’s how it became a hit. People played it because other people played it and talked about it.
I heard the chatter about it. But one look at the screens put me off.
I had not even heard about it till the articles saying it was stolen and going away .
lol, nice move posting the twitter, absolving kotaku of responsibility. -_-
Well, regardless of whether or not it being taken down actually had anything to do with detractors, just the sheer amount of negativity towards this little app that went big really made me cringe. I hope the guy finds more positive success in his next app.
………what?
I think he was talking about Kotaku’s cheap and nasty attack on Flappy Bird’s creator, claiming he was making tens of thousands a day with ‘ripped off’ artwork. It was a nasty and unsubstantiated piece of shitty journalism and a new low for Kotaku.
Totally agree with you here, the vile witch hunt by Kotaku and other sites was one of the worst things I’ve seen in video game journalism.
‘Journalism.’
Referring to this article – http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/02/flappy-bird-is-making-50000-a-day-off-ripped-art/
One of very many articles online spewing bile on the game I might add =P
I think he is trying to say that kotaku is trying to point out through the tweet that the game wasnt taken down because of bitching, moaning, and the bad publicity that kotaku has been posting, but rather because of gaming addiction.
So phones with Flappy Bird installed are now collector items?
It was a bad game, but at least it try to ask for money for lives or whatever.
No you can still download the game through “other means”…
No, because you can just download a .apk installer and side load it.
The phones that are being sold for ridiculous prices are iPhones, which are not able to have an APK sideloaded (unless they’re jailbroken, that is).
So basically only tech-illiterate noobs with lots of money desperate to play Flappy Bird will be the only ones to fall for such bait.
For the record, I found an APK a couple of hours ago and tried it just because of all of this fuss (I had no desire when it was freely available as it just did not sound like my type of game) and it is utter crap. No redeeming quality at all IMO.
It’s a perfect example of why mobile gaming is detrimental to the rest of the games industry i.e. PC and consoles. Pandering to the lowest common denominator rather than enticing them to actually evolve and appreciate more complex games.
pfft waste of time game anyway, seriously
Cannot wait for FlappyBird 2: The Flappening
I’m sure there’s a few hundred apk’s of flappy bird floating around, for those who really want the experience on android. It’s not gone, it’s just not on Google Play now.
Exactly. It annoys me when writers write something bogus purely for dramatic effect. Case in point for this article:
Its amazing how much influence a single youtuber can have on the games market. No body would even know about this game otherwise.
My guess is more he flew too close to the sun, as soon as the media started going on about it and it because this massive thing the guy got spooked, knowing at any moment he could get a law suit or anything from multiple companies. He said he’s still making games so my guess is he pulled out quick after raking in a few hundred thousand and will use that to make more games.
And so what’s the next mobile game that everyone will start playing and for some unknown reason other than this gamers will get pissed off about it?
I hate mobile games. I looked saw a screen of this, “Pfft, rubbish”. But I tried this once and was instantly hooked. Its one of those perfect twitch games thats so simple but so deceptively difficult; you can’t help but try again and again. I totally understand why it was a hit.
Flappy Bird wasn’t quite my cup of tea, but it is a very well polished simple arcade style game. I prefer more lengthy adventures or fast-paced games with lots of interesting actions. Even as bare as Galaga is the game is more my type.
Still though I have no problem with anyone who likes this game. Games are meant to be fun and well if people enjoy Flappy Bird then they are doing it right. But for those people who want to clone the game and try to make money off of it. I got a message for you. Don’t do it!
http://berathen.com/2014/02/how-to-make-a-flappy-bird-clone.php
Check out the best clone ever – Tappinator. The first truly innovative game based on mechanics of Flappy Bird!!!
https://itunes.apple.com/app/tappinator/id821491734
I have an Alcatel Onetouch Pixi for sale. Only 2 months old it has Flappy Birds (Version 1.3) on it if someone wants to buy it. mkurrajong@gmail.com