Flappy Bird Knockoffs Rejected By Google And Apple

The Flappy Bird craze seems to be far from over. Just looking at the Google Play Store there are at least six Flappy Bird knockoffs listed in the top 30 new free games. As the popularity of Flappy Bird and it’s knockoffs seem to keep rising, both Google and Apple reportedly will start cracking down and rejecting further knockoffs from entering the market.

The Inquisitr reported earlier that the creator of the Flappy Bird game, Dong Nguyen, decided to pull the game after it began blowing up, eventually becoming more then the creator could handle. Nguyen took to Twitter on February eighth to announce that he would be removing Flappy Bird from all app stores:

“I am sorry Flappy Bird users. 22 hours from now I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore. It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore. I also don’t sell Flappy Bird, please don’t ask. And I still make games.”

Many rumors started flying that Nguyen was receiving threats of lawsuits because of Flappy Bird’s similarities to previous games, but he has repeatedly denied those rumors. The game may now be gone, but it surely hasn’t been forgotten.

While scrolling through my phone, these are the Flappy Bird knockoffs that I have run into just in the top 30 free games: “Splashy Fish”, “Flappy Dragon”, “Splashy The Fish”, “Flappy Pig”, (another) “Splashy Fish” and finally, “Clumsy Bird” taking the number one spot.

Well, according to TechCrunch, both Apple and Google are now rejecting games with similarities to Flappy Bird. In fact, one Vancouver-based game designer said that Apple rejected his app called “Flappy Dragon” (not affiliated with the above named app) citing that his “app name attempts to leverage a popular app.” App creator, Ken Carpenter of Mind Juice Media, said that Apple sent him the following reasons for denying his app:

Reasons: 22.2: Apps that contain false, fraudulent or misleading representations will be rejected
22.2
We found that your app, and/or its metadata, contains content that could be misleading to users, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app.

It would seem that Apple and Google are currently rejecting any new game that has the term “Flappy” in it. According to The Independent, Carpenter has since renamed his app “Derpy Dragon” and it has finally been approved for the market place. The report stated that “Derpy Dragon” was rejected twice by Google Play and once by Apple.

Well, it looks like Google and Apple are going to have one heck of a time trying to keep all the Flappy Bird knockoffs off the market, because even if they reject everything with the term “flappy” in it, it would seem that game creators are getting creative with their name’s to avoid the rejection.