The past few weeks have been unusual for the mobile gaming industry, with the surge in popularity of Flappy Bird ruffling up quite a few feathers simply because it’s one of the most ridiculous games we’ve seen in a while. Following high Twitter drama, its developer has taken down the addictive game from both Apple and Android stores without bestowing us with a concrete reason for the same. However, those who already have Flappy Bird can frustrate themselves with it how much ever they want, but it won’t be available for download from now on.
Based on the idea of yesteryears’ Copter game, this mobile-only title has you tapping your touchscreens to take a seemingly disfigured bird through an obstacle course consisting only of vertical pipes. And it’s game over if the bird touches the pipes in any way. The extreme difficulty of Flappy Bird is one of the reasons why it has received so much glory, and why it’s the subject of plenty of Internet memes that have littered the web recently.
I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014
The story started when Flappy Bird suddenly received a burst in popularity this January, even after having been available on the App Store since May last year. Lots of stories are flying around as to why the it gained so much attention all of a sudden, prime among them being the use of a massive planned PR campaign and the use of bots to put up reviews on app stores. Credited to a studio called DotGears, Flappy Bird has been developed by a Vietnamese coder named Dong Nguyen.
‘I cannot take this anymore,’ he suddenly decided to declare in a Tweet which also mentioned that he would be taking down the game soon. Yet he kept the reason for this move secret. This comes as a surprise given that this title was apparently earning him about 50,000 USD per day in ad revenue. Nguyen has said that the game has ruined his simple life, and this could be considered as the reason he wants the game to be taken down.
On Sunday, Flappy Bird flapped its wings on the Google Play store and the App Store for the last time, and it’s not sure whether we’ll ever be seeing it back online again. Until then, like we said, those who own the game still can continue playing it and getting annoyed by its unusual appeal. The video above suggests one way to cope with the addictiveness. See it for yourselves.