'Flappy Bird' Removed from App Store by Developer

[garylapointe]

More to the story...?!?

There has got to be more to the story. You just don't give this up for no reason than some stress of reporters calling and excess cash flow. He had to make no effort to maintain it (it was done and got popular and the social aspect were making his other apps get tried out). It didn't sound like some side project continually needing maintenance.

Another few weeks of the crazy popularity and we're talking early retirement.

Yes, he'll continue to make some money from the ads, but with his apps being number one you've got new people trying it, many of those ad views were going to be first time viewers (who give up after a few plays), now he's only getting views from old players.

If nothing else, he could have taken the future income and donated it.

Again, I don't know the whole story...

Gary

 

[nepalisherpa]

Why would he need to do that if he already generating 50k/day?

To make more!

 

[dannyyankou]

There has got to be more to the story. You just don't give this up for no reason than some stress of reporters calling and excess cash flow. He had to make no effort to maintain it (it was done and got popular and the social aspect were making his other apps get tried out). It didn't sound like some side project continually needing maintenance.

Another few weeks of the crazy popularity and we're talking early retirement.

Yes, he'll continue to make some money from the ads, but with his apps being number one you've got new people trying it, many of those ad views were going to be first time viewers (who give up after a few plays), now he's only getting views from old players.

If nothing else, he could have taken the future income and donated it.

Again, I don't know the whole story...

Gary

He was making $50,000 per day. That's not some money, it's over $1,000,000 per month. I can see why he's content with removing it, because people will still be addicted and he'll continue to make money. Not to mention he probably got a ton of new users yesterday preceding it being removed.

 

[furi0usbee]

My advice for his next big app? Right before it goes GM, delete the source code on secure delete. Avoid all the drama from the get go.

 

[thegrants82]

What a drama! I think it's a stunt to get more people to download it before it's gone from the Appstore "temporarily".

Agreed, total stunt for money. I never even heard of it until last week. Could care less.

 

[bushido]

so did the ads at least disappear from the game too?

 

[hestroy]

I'm really sad

I can't express how sad I am. Especially when I'm reading some posts here. Are you people really so naive?

 

[TrenttonY]

You'll never get it back! I think unless you have it synced to your iCloud/iTunes (not too sure about that though)

Any app downloads are still available through App Store - Update - Purchased

 

[Retired Cat]

I never heard of this game until yesterday. After watching some reviews on YouTube, I can only conclude that there's really no way to tell what games will be a hit and which will flop. Flappy Bird is ridiculously repetitive/boring… but appears to be highly addictive for many players.

 

[Mackan]

Soon the app store is filled with flappy bird lookalike games, because someone else wants to rack home the money instead of this developer.

 

[RebornProphet]

Will those who have it and still play it still generate income for him via the ads that still show in the game? Or does the app need to be "active" in the App Store for it to qualify for in app ad revenue?

 

[0098386]

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.

Not at all. Once a game is out there and is a success, people will pester you. You either get messages on social media, emails from fans, journalists, nutters. It's really tough out there. Every time I release a game on Steam or consoles I hide away too because all I want to do is make games, and not the marketing side of things. I hate giving interviews before launches too.

There are lots of independent developers that don't want the attention.

 

[bsolar]

What a tremendous missed opportunity. If he was that disinterested in profiting he should have picked a good charity and donated the proceeds. How incredibly short sided of him. Shame on you Dong Nguyen.

Assuming he was sincere, profits were not part of his explanation about the removal. His key issues were not wanting fame and attention and donating the profits to a charity would do nothing to address them.

Also if you want charities to get financial support you can do that with your own money. I find pretty rude to tell others what to do with their revenues and to shame them if they don't do what you think they should.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Was this just a cheap dumbed down knock off of Line Birds?

Yes! And I love line birds, it's much less frustrating, haha. I'm not knocking Flappy Bird, though. But nobody really knew about Line Birds compared to Flappy Bird. I've been on a re-delete and download cycle with Flappy Bird but I think it's here to stay for occasional use.

A lot of people are upset, and although there won't be updates/future support (down the road), I don't think people realize once you buy/download an app it's in your "app cloud" forever. I guess Apple doesn't delete it from their servers.

 

[iBreatheApple]

I love how it's "trendy" to hate on this game. It's useless. If you don't like it don't play it. I see people cheering (mocking) it's removal all over Twitter and it's silly.

 

[MN7119]

Who cares???? Another stupid game is gone. So what??? This guy just wants publicity and people are giving him that. Great marketing ploy.

 

[shyam09]

http://www.bgr.in/news/5-flappy-bird-clones-to-play-once-the-game-is-taken-down-ss214/

 

[garylapointe]

Yes, he'll continue to make some money from the ads, but with his apps being number one you've got new people trying it, many of those ad views were going to be first time viewers (who give up after a few plays), now he's only getting views from old players.

He was making $50,000 per day. That's not some money, it's over $1,000,000 per month. I can see why he's content with removing it, because people will still be addicted and he'll continue to make money. Not to mention he probably got a ton of new users yesterday preceding it being removed.

Wow, you bolded a portion of my sentence but completely ignored the rest. Are you seriously suggesting he's going to continue to make the same amount of money?? Many of those ad views people would be first time viewers (top of charts means many new downloaders, right?) including all of those who won't come back, and no more new users are coming; interest in playing will go down now up (since no one else can get it). Unless, you think he's been making $50k a day for the last year and not just for a portion of the time he's at the top of the charts this hasn't gone on for ages?

I'm sure he got a bunch of new downloaders who jumped on and grabbed it before it disappeared and might never launch it (some not even once) and some new users (plus many first time launchers).

I also brought up donating money: If this money making would sustain itself for another month, he could have donated $1,000,000 to his favorite charity or $50,000 to his 30 favorite charities. Or keep it in the family and take care of all your friends and relatives children's college educations...

All of this came from where I said, "there has got to be more to the story". There is too much good that could be done with the money.

Gary

 

[iBreatheApple]

Who cares???? Another stupid game is gone. So what??? This guy just wants publicity and people are giving him that. Great marketing ploy.

It's not really a marketing ploy if he won't be receiving any addition revenue from new downloads. I think he just wants to be left alone. I know that's weird considering that most people enjoy the recognition and success but it is what it is and it's not really for us to understand I guess. He just seems like a simple guy who doesn't want to deal with "it all". Whatever that may be.

 

[MikeyMike01]

I hope this guy gets even more crap now than before.

 

[Yelloowboixx]

This is sad... No more flappy birds for us..
Developer confirmed it

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

 

[garylapointe]

For those wondering, if you downloaded it, it will still always be available in the Purchased section of the app store for your account, even though it's been removed from the store.

I don't know about always (that's a mighty long time), but it's there right now.

There are some apps that I've purchased that are no longer in there (travel apps, not apps that violated tethering or inappropriate content).

I wonder what the rules are for those, can I get refunds? Aren't they always supposed to be available? If my iPad dies and I restore from iCloud, I assume it won't find those few apps...

Also, a GPS app (I guess that's travel too!) pulled it's old version and it's gone permanently by design (they did allow you to configure an account and use their totally new app by logging in).

Gary

 

[Shrink]

I hope this guy gets even more crap now than before.

Why?

Did the guy personally insult you?

Did the guy ruin your life?

Did the guy do something that effected your life in a negative manner?

Why do you wish him ill...since he made a decision regarding the quality of his own life.

I'm really interested in knowing the motivation for wishing him ill...

 

[Cloudsurfer]

I get the feeling that not the entire story is told here. No sane person throws away a fortune just like that. There has to be more to it than just the media breathing down his neck, which I'm sure would only be for a brief time since this overhyped game will be forgotten in a year.

 

[bsolar]

I also brought up donating money: If this money making would sustain itself for another month, he could have donated $1,000,000 to his favorite charity or $50,000 to his 30 favorite charities. Or keep it in the family and take care of all your friends and relatives children's college educations...

You're judging his choice taking into account what you consider good things which could have been done with the money, but you are not him. From all we know he might not care at all about charities, family or friends. I still believe the story is a little fishy, but he would't be the first who turns down a huge amount of money because it believes it's not worth the hassle.