Flappy Bird is coming back.
The game’s developer confirmed this week that the viral sensation he suddenly took off the market will make its return, though fans hoping for a time frame may end up disappointed.
Dong Nguyen created the addictive game that requires users to skillfully navigate a bird through sewer drain obstacles by rapidly clicking their mobile device. The 28-year-old from Vietnam was reportedly making $50,000 per day at the height of the game’s popularity, but abruptly announced it would be taken out of stores.
After a month of silence, Nguyen revealed some of his reasoning behind clipping the wings of Flappy Bird, saying it caused too much trouble for him.
“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.
The announcement that the game would go away led to a stampede app stores, with 10 million people downloading Flappy Bird in just 24 hours. The game remained popular even after it was shelved, with some people selling phones loaded with the game on eBay for thousands of dollars.
But now Nguyen has revealed that Flappy Bird will be coming back to the Apple Store sometime in the future.
@painfullpacman Yes. But not soon.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) March 19, 2014
The game may be known as something other than Flappy Bird when it does come back. Mobile Media Partners locked in the name Flappy Bird after Nguyen deleted it, making it impossible for him to resurrect it under 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.’
The ever-mysterious Dong Nguyen is still keeping fans in the dark about the game, not saying exactly when Flappy Bird might be coming back.