It was a game that briefly became as popular as "Angry Birds" or "Candy Crush". "Flappy Bird", with its Nintendo-like graphics and its incredibly hard gameplay, became a viral sales hit for Vietnam-based programmer Dong Nguyen. However, its creator apparently felt too much pressure from the success of the game and in February pulled "Flappy Bird" from the iOS App and Google Play stores:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/live-reaction-flappy-bird-taken-3127938In a new interview on Rolling Stone's website today:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-flight-of-the-birdman-flappy-bird-creator-dong-nguyen-speaks-out-20140311?page=2 , Nguyen said that he felt the game he had created was becoming too much of a distraction for a number of his players. He said he received emails from people who claim to have lost their jobs because they kept playing "Flappy Birds" so he decided to take it down. That hasn't stopped him from continuing to receive lots of money from people who keep playing the game ('Flappy Birds' is free but gets revenue from running in-app ads).
Meanwhile, Nguyen continues to develop new ideas for games, but says he is "considering" a relaunch of "Flappy Birds". He says that if the game ever does become available again, it will come with a warning: "Please take a break."
(NW)