Good riddance?
It’s no secret that Flappy Bird, that super simple yet soul-crushingly hard Android and iOS game has become a massive hit. It’s so successful, that it used to earn Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen $50,000 a day in ad revenue. We say used to, because Nguyen has pulled his highly successful app today, after notifying fans through his Twitter account that he would do so a day before.
I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) Pebrero 8, 2014
It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) Pebrero 8, 2014
We can confirm that Nguyen’s game is no longer in the Google Play Store (confirmed on both our Galaxy S4 and Lenovo Vibe Z). Users have also confirmed that it has disappeared in the iOS App store. It’s still not clear why Nguyen decided to walk away from his hugely successful game and the literal tons of money it earns in ad revenue, though some have speculated that he did it to preemptively avoid being sued by Nintendo’s IP lawyers, as portions of his game borrows heavily from the in-game assets of Nintendo’s favorite cash cow character. Maybe now our Facebook feeds will be free from people posting their hi-scores.