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Dong Nguyen made waves at the weekend after announcing Flappy Bird would be removed from the App Store. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Nguyen explains his — unorthodox — reasoning.
“It was just too addictive,” Mr. Dong said. He says he didn’t intend for people to play the game for hours at a time, as many gamers appear to have done.
“That was the main negative. So I decided to take it down,” he said.
Although most developers usually dedicate more time to a title that becomes a smash-hit, Nguyen decided the game was too addicting to keep it on sale. Dong says he is ‘uncomfortable’ with the attention the game has brought him and is hoping to return to normality soon. He is unsure if he will return to his day job as a firmware engineer.
For the future, Dong says that he now has the freedom to create more games.
Since pulling it from Apple’s and Google’s app stores, interest in Mr. Dong’s other games, including “Ninjas Assault” and “Droplet Shuffle,” has increased. Mr. Dong says he is working on three prototypes in a similar vein to “Flappy Bird.”
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leave it alone already….
What a JOKE. This guy is just whoring for more publicity, and stupid blog writers are obliging. Wait and see how this app comes back with a vengeance and skyrockets.
Withdrawals already? lol
I would still bet there’s a lot more to this story and I’m guessing it has to do with legal issues. The reason he’s providing is sketchy to begin with, especially since it’s costing him $50k a day. But let’s assume he’s telling the truth, why leave his other games up? Why develop more games similar to Flappy Bird? Those are time wasters. If he likes developing apps why not develop an app that actually makes the world a better place? Absolutely more to this story, we’ll probably never know.
great marketing!
three prototypes in a similar vein to “Flappy Bird.”
What’s the point? He will shut them down if they succeed.
If he felt bad about the game succeeding too well, he should have donated the money to a worthy cause. Shutting it down achieved nothing, except a legion of imitators.
If you missed on it, try Splashy Fish.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/splashy-fish-adventure-flappy/id811035387?mt=8
remember giana sister? those duckts, rods or whatever you have to negotiate look a lot like that old game …