Flappy Bird created Dong Nguyen made waves last weekend when he pulled his crazy-popular game from both the App Store and Google Play, where it was sitting at the number one spot in the "Top Free" app lists. When Nguyen announced that he would be yanking the game, he explained that he was doing so because he couldn't "take this anymore" and that it "[ruined] his simple life." Now the Flappy Bird developer has shed a bit more light on his decision to pull the game that was earning him $50,000 a day in ad revenue.
In an interview with Forbes, Nguyen said that Flappy Bird was created as a way to relax and kill a few minutes of free time. "But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem," Nguyen explained. "To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird."
He went on to reveal that while trying to decide whether or not to remove Flappy Bird from the App Store and Google Play, he was uncomfortable and had trouble sleeping. Nguyen said that he's happy with his decision to yank the game, reaffirming that it is indeed gone for good. He's not done with mobile game development, though, saying that he plans to create more games and that Flappy Bird has given him more confidence and the freedom to do as he likes.
The tale of Flappy Bird is certainly a strange one. The app originally launched in May 2013 but didn't gain much attention until a week or so ago, at which point it seemed that most everyone was guiding their little bird between pipes and sharing their high scores on social media. There are likely quite a few folks that are disappointed that they can no longer download Flappy Bird to their Android or iOS device, but it sounds like the game's success took its toll on Nguyen, and so it's probably for the best that he yank the game. The good news for Nguyen is that whatever game he makes next will get much more attention at launch than Flappy Bird did.
If you had developed Flappy Bird and were put into the same situation as Nguyen, do you think that you would've pulled the game from the App Store and Google Play?
Via Forbes
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