Flappy Bird Craze - Stupid, Successful & Gone Forever

"After a meteoric rise to the No. 1 spot on Apple's iOS App Store charts, the deceivingly simple Flappy Bird has been removed by the game's developer Dong Nguyen. The takedown comes after Nguyen promised to pull Flappy Bird on Saturday.

At one point, Flappy Bird was raking in about $50,000 per day from in-game advertising, reports The Verge. In addition to revenue, ads were added to enhance the gaming experience, according to Nguyen, who modeled the title after bite-sized Japanese offerings.

The exact reason for Flappy Bird's removal is unknown, though Nguyen stated legal issues are not to blame. When the developer announced he would be pulling the app, some theorized Nintendo had taken issue with the title's art style, which was heavily influenced by Super Mario Bros."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.

*Read more here from Apple Insider:

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The Largest Online News Show in the World. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE STREAMING weekdays 6-8pm ET.

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The Young Turks (Winner - Best Political Podcast & Best Political News Site of 2009) were the first original talk show on Sirius satellite radio and the first live, daily webcast on the internet. But that is not the revolution.

We are a rare show that combines all of the news that people care about in one place. We are not afraid to talk about politics and entertainment and sports and pop culture. But that is not the revolution either.

The real revolution is in daring to be honest with people. We don't patronize our viewers or lie to them. We have real conversations and deliver the news honestly.

[SocialistSenpai]

The guy stopped because he was getting too much publicity, getting negative attention due to criticism, and wasn't ready for the insane success of the game. I can understand that. Especially if this guy is a Buddhist or Spiritually simplistic, I can see him dropping the app from the store.

Summarily it COULD be a marketing move but from all the releases from the designer, i don't see it being intended as a marketing move.

Now, all of this being stated, as for the game itself. Yes it's simple. Is it a bad game? Not really. It's honestly somewhat like an updated atari title. Back in the day games relied on bragging rights and high scores. 

"oh man! I got to 99, 999 score on this game and then it wouldn't post any more points! I owned that game!"

"Dude! I made it through every stage after stage 2 with ONLY a blaster because I lost ALL my power ups!"

Arcades relied heavily on a social culture revolving around pride in your ability to get through a game. People popped tons of quarters and spent months if not years mastering arcade games.

Anyone saying this is a "bad" game needs to look at the overall history of gaming. Is it a "good" game? It depends on how you view gaming to be honest. I view it as a solid game based on one mechanic and a score system.

Was it simple? yeah of course, but what IS flappy bird exactly as far as classification?

It was a roguelike scorebased platformer with a hard as nails skill curve. If this came out in the 70's or eighties we might be talking about flappybird instead of pacman when it comes to game history.

In the current gaming climate where everyone is all about the graphics and pushing the boundary people tend to forget that simplified mechanics sell well for a reason. It's what everything else is built on.

[HeartofTarts]

It is so weird when people get angry over money that other people are making.

[UPlayNetwork]

Ruin his life? come on maybe the guy got shocked seeing so much money first time in his life he suffered the reverse of i am getting rich happiness, i wish i made that game first i love money 

[YoGravi]

i hate hearing people who know nothing about games talk about them

[tylerfrump]

Gone forever? The Pirate Bay says otherwise.

[Freeden]

Why is it a surprise the guy did this? He probably didn't expect his simple little game to become so popular. Not everyone wants to be famous. While I'm sure the money is nice, and he has now made quite a bit even in the small time Flappy Bird was up, seeing how frustrated and angry the game got people, I don't blame. Heck, someone shot their brother over the game. The amount of crazy that this game has created is kind of astonishing. 

[whitedragon]

Why have they not guess that Nintendo might sue

[ShockaSlim]

Game is easier if you have a bigger screen.

[Ronnie_miami]

Little kids who've never played Mario, but have played Flappy Bird will think Mario stole Flappy Bird's pipes lol pretty sad

[krisshishymishy]

This is not an original game. I used to play this as a teenager. It was a helicopter

[FanaticArtz]

They really shouldn't do a story on games because they have no FUCKING CLUE ABOUT GAMES.

[viralpatelify]

iPhone 5 with flappy bird sold on eBay for $94000. We should all just go to bed now...

[Xanifur]

He took it down to avoid getting sued by Nintendo.

[danielmanahan]

See what happens to society when people stop flapping their bird and now play flappy bird?

[kelvoy]

cenk nailed it at the end. its so that it creates some sort of value to the game. they even sell iphone now which still has flappy bird in it

[Troublesome]

Lol, did Cenk say "come on nigga you crazy" at 4:22? Cenk's on that thug life now?

[TheTaintedWisdom]

I think Cenk's theory is spot on. I had never even heard of Flappy Bird & would never have if the story hadn't called attention to it.

[alsybroth]

Most ridiculous part of this story is that several people who downloaded Flappy Bird have been selling their android phones with the game installed on eBay, and unbelievably, some have sold for more than $100, 000 - because of the sheer hype surrounding this. That's stupidity on an unbelievable scale.

[tonyalapointe]

I've only heard of this game once before, but wow.

[theChidori]

How is this even considered a bad game? It doesn't matter how simplistic or how hard it is. People want to play it over and over. Goal achieved.