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Flappy Bird Creator Finally Speaks Out On His Decision To Remove The Game

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 04:33 PST, Mar 16, 2014

Flappy Bird was created for people to be able to relax and enjoy playing a fun and challenging game. However, it soon turned into an obsession for millions of people, causing its creator Dong Nguyen to pull it from the app store.

After a month of silence, regarding his decision, Nguyen has finally opened up and explained why he made the decision he did. In February, Nguyen revealed, via Twitter, that he would be deleting the app. “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine,” read one of his tweets. “But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it,” read another.

Immediately following the announcement, 10 million people bombarded the app store in hopes of downloading the app before it was too late, in less than 24 hours. When Rolling Stone asked Nguyen why he wanted to remove an app that was so successful he simply replied: “I’m master of my own fate. Independent thinker.”

Following the removal of Flappy Bird, rumors started circulating that Nguyen had killed himself and was being sued by Nintendo for the games resemblance to the famous Mario Bros. game. Nguyen also received thousands of death threats from people who wanted the game back. Luckily, none of the rumors were true.

Although Flappy Bird is no longer available for purchase, those who had the game downloaded before it was removed were able to keep it on their phones. The game gained so much popularity that people started selling their phones with Flappy Bird installed on eBay for thousands of dollars. Yes, people are paying that much!

If you were not able to download the app, there are tons of replicas available in the app store. While they may not be identical, there are many similarities. “People can clone the app because of its simplicity,” Nguyen explained, “but they will never make another ‘Flappy Bird.'”

Nguyen even teased that he may bring the app back, but under certain circumstances. “I’m considering it,” Nguyen revealed, but also added that the game would come with a warning that reads: “Please take a break.”

Even if Nguyen decides he wants to reinstate the app, it may not be that easy. According to Nguyen’s agreement with Apple, “You want to delete an app when you’re ready to retire an app and there’s no chance you will want to offer it for sale or download in the future.” This is saying that, even with a copyright, Nguyen could not bring the app back.

Less than two hours after Nguyen pulled the game, Mobile Media Partners locked in the name Flappy Birds, making it impossible for Nguyen to resurrect the game using the same name. “One of my engineers happened to be uploading one of our games on that Sunday,” chief executive of Mobile Media Partners Chris Langbein said. “We put ‘Flappy Bird’ in — he just recently deleted it — and it was available. It wasn’t like we waited and jumped in as soon as he deleted it.’

Langbein explained that his company has tried to reach out to Nguyen, but have not been successful. “We’ve tried to reach out to him,” said Langbein. “It’s hard to get a true story from him about what transpired. Everyone read different reasons as to why he pulled it.”

[Image via Twitter]

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