Eleven years ago, the mobile gaming world briefly became consumed by Flappy Bird, a mobile title that was simplistic as it was addictive. The game, which was only as mechanically dense as tapping a screen to time jumps between pipes, was driven by an advertising model that showed ads between common deaths.
With the game’s virality and free download model, it was making $50,000 a day for developer Dong Nguyen from Vietnam until Nguyen abruptly ceased sales on the title in 2014. Nguyen cited guilt over the game’s addictive nature and feared physical violence aimed at himself and his family over perceived faults with the game. With the discontinuation, Nguyen said he had no intention of ever selling the license to the game and more or less disappeared from the internet.
Today, it was announced that Flappy Bird is making a return to mobile platforms courtesy of The Flappy Bird Foundation Group.
A trailer went up today for the game advertising an upcoming re-release with new modes such as a battle royale (presumably not unlike Nintendo’s Super Mario 35 for Switch) and an easy mode involving basketball hoops. In addition, The Flappy Bird Foundation Group bought the rights to an unrelated title, Piou Piou vs. Cactus, the game that Dong Nguyen was criticized for taking inspiration — or outright stealing from, as some critics suggest — for the characters in Flappy Bird.
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It is not entirely clear what the Flappy Bird Foundation Group is and attempts by GamesBeat to contact them have not yielded any answers. In a press release, the group mentions obtaining the trademark for Flappy Bird from Gametech LLC with Dong Nguyen’s name conspicuously absent from today’s news.
After investigating the filings, Gametech did not appear to buy Flappy Bird from Nguyen, but moved on the trademark following an expiration years after Nguyen discontinued the game. Gametech’s reasoning in these court filings appears to be that the trademark expired as a result of Nguyen not intending to reuse Flappy Bird again. It does appear that the creator of Piou Piou vs. Cactus is heavily involved with the announced re-release.
It is difficult to say whether Flappy Bird can capture the same essence from a decade ago that made it a viral hit. The world has changed a lot since then, perhaps nowhere more rapidly than the mobile gaming sector. Early screenshots released by The Flappy Bird Foundation Group indicate that a new premium currency of diamonds will be part of the new release, which could definitely limit its reach compared to the original. Only time will tell.