UPDATE: On Saturday, Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen tweeted that he will remove the game from Android and iTunes marketplaces within 22 hours. “I am sorry Flappy Bird users, 22 hours from now, I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore,” the owner tweeted. True to his word, the game has now been removed.
The game was free and supported by advertisements, with Nguyen reportedly earning $50,000 a day. Although the game was released in May of last year, it shot to mainstream only recently and became the most popular app downloaded on iTunes for many weeks.
Recently, there have been criticisms relating to the originality of the game, the intended audience and the origin of its suspiciously Super Mario-inspired visual styling. It is said this is why the game was taken down, but in a reply to a follower, Nguyen also stated it was because people were “overusing” the app. It is hard to say whether this means ‘abusing’ or ‘addicted to’, it is speculative.
Within hours of the game disappearing, listings on Ebay selling phones with the app installed are causing a stir. Some used handsets are going for in excess of $650, just because they have the game installed. It should be noted that the price for a brand new iPhone 5S is $750, meaning some people are considering paying through the nose for a now historical game.
Read more about Flappy Bird here.
