During the weekend it was announced by Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen, a 29-year-old Vietnamese mobile developer, via Twitter that the 2D side-scrolling game was going to be removed from both the App Store and Google Play . There were speculations as to why Nguyen pulled the title, since the title was (somehow) gaining immense popularity. It was hinted in a few tweets prior to the announcement that the reason why Flappy Bird was pulled was because Nguyen couldn’t handle the pressure that was put on him and his life.
During an interview with Forbes , however, Nguyen explained that the reason why he pulled the game from the App Store and Google play was because it was turning into an “addictive product.” What’s more, Nguyen has asserted that the game will not be coming back–ever.
“ Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” Nguyen told Forbes. “But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird . It’s gone forever.”
Nguyen’s interview with Forbes took place in a hotel in Hanoi (from which, according to Forbes, he exhibited signs of stress), with the strict condition that Forbes would not reveal Nguyen’s face. The interview itself was delayed for several hours, partly due to Nguyen being summoned to Vietnam’s deputy prime minister Vu Duc Dam. The reasons for this summoning were not detailed, which is understandable since it seems that Nguyen wants to keep the majority of the matter–and himself–hush-hush. Even Nguyen’s parents didn’t know about Flappy Bird , much less about Nguyen’s involvement with it, until this story ran wild over the past few days.
Nguyen has other games he’s developed on the App Store, but he has stated that he has no plans to remove said games, as they are “harmless.” He did express, however, that if there are signs that users were getting addicted to those games then he wouldn’t hesitate to pull those games too.
When explaining the reasoning behind the decision to pull Flappy Bird , Nguyen stated that it was his guilt that motivated him, as well as the fact that his life has “not been as comfortable as [it] was before”. Before the game was pulled, Nguyen claimed that he “couldn’t sleep,” but now that the game has been pulled he added that his conscience was relieved, which is understandable. What’s more, after thinking the decision through, Nguyen doesn’t think that removing Flappy Bird was a mistake.
Despite there being many clones and spin-offs of Flappy Bird , Nguyen confirmed that he will not take legal action against them. When asked by Forbes what he would like to say to players of Flappy Bird , Nguyen responded with a humble, “Thank you very much for playing my game.”
I can empathize with why Nguyen removed Flappy Bird , because it’s not nice knowing that you’ve created a game that players are becoming highly addicted to. I also understand that Nguyen wanted to keep his identity in the dark, since he seems to be already under a hefty amount of stress from gaining so much popularity so quickly, and the less stress the better (especially from a mental health standpoint). I hope things pan out okay for this guy.