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'Flappy Bird' Removed from App Store by Developer

It ruined your life and you wanted to be alone, but let me make a YouTube video and allow everyone to see what I look like and share this video. Honestly bro, you're the biggest moron to hit the AppStore- and I mean that with all honesty. It's not even about the money it's about you being a freaking jerk off.

Yelloowboixx said:
This is sad... No more flappy birds for us..
Developer confirmed it :(

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yPZei-84W4g
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gregwyattjr said:
I feel for the guy. Sometimes sanity is more important than money.
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I don't really get it. Were people beating down his front door for an update or what? How the heck can you be more bothered than you want to be? Stop reading feedback. $50k a day in ad revenue? WTF.... Just sit there and collect the money. That's a MILLION dollars every 20 days. Who the heck would turn that kind of money down for some bizarre "don't bother me" reason that is just a matter of ignoring email?

Frankly, I'm wondering if he was worried that kind of money was inviting a law suit from Nintendo. I mean his backgrounds look nearly identical to the game. I mean wouldn't you make sure your backgrounds looked reasonably different? Maybe he's already got several million and hopes to keep it rather than have Nintendo sue his pants off. That's my best guess. Given what happened to The Verve with the song "Bittersweet Symphony", I couldn't blame him for worrying about it. Nintendo has such deep pockets, they could burn his profits up just paying for a defense even if the judge ruled in his favor. Yeah, I would have made sure my backgrounds looked NOTHING like Nintendo's just to be sure. I doubt he ever thought it'd make that kind of money, though.
 
Flood123 said:
He IS from Vietnam which is still a communist country. I'm not sure how it works there, but I do remember about the developer of Tetris didn't see a dime because he was living in Russia under communist rule. I'm not sure if it works the same in Vietnam. Not sure him hardening the **** up would help much in this case.
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True. I just realized this when I researched where the developer Dong Nguyen lives. According to Wikipedia, he is indeed living in Hanoi Vietnam, rather than being a Vietnamese-American living in California (with its large Vietnamese community).

Perhaps we could speculate that he felt some pressure from the communist government of Vietnam. If that is the case, then I do feel sympathy for the guy, in which case I rescind my previous criticism of him pulling his own app down in such bizarre fashion.
 
Yelloowboixx said:
This is sad... No more flappy birds for us..
Developer confirmed it :(

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yPZei-84W4g
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure that this isn't the dev of Flappy Bird. It's a fraud. Look at the other videos of user HappyRider2011:
https://www.youtube.com/user/HappyRider2011/videos

And it seems to me that he talks too "good" US American language. For a guy from Hanoi, Vietnam. Since English is not my native language: What do native speakers say? Is it with an accent or not?
 
I like bananas said:
Really? You do realize it was the most popular app on iOS, right? Why would he even need to something like that?

Is it really so hard for people to believe that he wants to get away from the massive amounts of negativity surrounding him and his game?
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Read my other comment in this thread. I will let you look for it.
 
Balloon loons said:
http://www.bluecloudsolutions.com/blog/flappy-birds-smoke-mirrors-scamming-app-store/

For more information about the cheater and how he may have done it please see the article above.

He removed the app because he was close to being discovered. If he was apple would have banned him from the developer program and he would never be able to make another app. He is smart at least that far. He took the money and hid so he can do this again in the future. He hoped to remain under the radar so no one would notice he was cheating which is against apple developer policy. Once he got the attention he hid like the scum he is.

You don't go out of your way to cheat the system to not make $$$. For you people with the theories that he is too good for $$ or perhaps has other goals in life....that's ridiculous. That's like saying someone on this planet would win the lottery then give the money back. If such person exists please let me meet them so I can shake their hand.
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You know what they say about assumptions. Also, if it is certain that he cheated what does it matter if he pulled the app. Apple could still ban him.
 
would love to see the amount of downloads he got since he announced that. He can live the rest of his life in Vietnam now on the ad revenue from those who have downloaded the app.
 
I don't get it, everyone is criticizing him over reasons involving money. :confused: Nowadays people have highly devalued privacy and such. :(

Anyways, I think we do need to consider the fact that the developer lives in Vietnam. Who knows what kind of things he has to handle given his success and the communist government there. :eek:
 
McTaste said:
How fragile does one have to be to let internet attention push you away from a successful project? As someone mentioned yesterday, it's not like the developer was getting harassed in the streets...just get a new email address and collect the money for a rainy day fund.

Seems silly to let an opportunity like this go to waste, but to each her own.
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obviously, it's a stunt. cashing checks is not really known as a stress-inducer.
 
chrono1081 said:
I don't, hes an idiot. People like his game, it doesn't mean he has to read news about it or respond to anything. It's on the app store making him money.
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Yeah, as much as I despise greed, I have to agree with you here. All the guy had to do was just not respond to whatever requests he was receiving, and he'd have been set for life. And if he really didn't want the money for whatever reason, he could've given all the proceeds to charity, or otherwise used it to improve other people's lives.
 
techweenie said:
I don't fully understand the pressure he's feeling and I don't want to discount it, but my first thought was: "first world problems..."
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No. You're wrong here.

According to Wikipedia, the developer Dong Nguyen is a resident of Hanoi Vietnam (the Third World).

He is not some stereotype rich US-born Vietnamese-American living with his successful immigrant parents in the suburbs of Los Angeles and going to a local college with a 4.0 GPA like many Asian-American kids. (the First World)
 
Ok... I call B.S

Firstly, if he didn't want the attention, why not just take it down, kill the twitter account, change your email address, and relax. Instead he gives a countdown to remove the app currently at the top of the chart.... like that will avoid attention.

Secondly, why not sell it? It would not only make him a few quid, but also pass the attention on to someone else. (he wouldn't sell it btw because a forced update would move the ad revenue ;)).
 
Why is this getting sooooo much coverage...? It isn't like this is the first game or app to be pulled off the app store...
 
Very clever marketing ploy... however I do stand to be corrected.

'IF' its true what he's saying, keep it running, ignore emails etc and give the money away to a charity that would be crying out for that sort of money.

Unless the guy is not well because of all this, as in mentally its affected him, I just don't buy this.

Perhaps I should try this with my App...
 
-LikesMac- said:
I don't get it, everyone is criticizing him over reasons involving money. :confused: Nowadays people have highly devalued privacy and such. :(
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A lot of people here think everyone works in the same way. On development forums it's quite the opposite, they tend to understand the reasons why he took the game down.
 
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I think all of this was just a PR/marketing stunt with the ultimate goal to create artificial urgency and maximum downloads in the shortest time. Admittedly, successful stunt.

Anyway, I find the game extremely one-dimensional and boring. Also the "pixel art" is uninspired and blatantly plain/basic. I'm actually impressed how it got popular in the first place. :rolleyes:

App deleted.
 
His game certainly did have some remarkably similar appearances to certain Nintendo games.
 
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