The developer of the popular mobile game Flappy Bird just declared that he’s taking the game down tomorrow.
Dong Nguyen, an indie game developer based in Hanoi, Vietnam, tweeted, “I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore.” He then elaborated, “It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.”
After his tweets first went out, others asked if he was willing to sell it, but he said no. Nguyen also said that he’s still making games.
TechCrunch interviewed Nguyen via email a week ago, after Flappy Bird took off (it’s still the number one free app in both Apple’s App Store and in Google Play). He said that he’s the only creator at his game studio .GEARS , and he seemed to be as surprised by Flappy Bird’s popularity as anyone else, telling us, “I have no resources to do anything else beside uploading the game.”
I’ve emailed Nguyen to find out more and will update this post if I hear back. Presumably, if you’ve already downloaded the game you’d be able to continue playing it, but again, that’s not something I’ve confirmed with Nguyen.
As noted in Kotaku, Nguyen said earlier this week that the press was “overrating” the success of his games: “It is something I never want. Please give me peace.”
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Still want more? Read “Confessions Of A Flappy Bird Addict”