In the last two months, Information Space has published two posts about Flappy Bird. One about the craze surrounding the game, and another–only six days later–about how the creator of the game, Dong Nguyen, was going to take the game off the market.
Well, Nguyen is back at it…playing with our hearts again. Check out the Tweet below:
There it is.
businessinsider.com
Nguyen was asked weather he was going to put Flappy Bird back on the App Store, and he responded with, “Yes. But not soon.”
This comes after an interview that Nguyen had with Rolling Stone Magazine. In the interview, he discusses how he didn’t expect to create the kind of online phenomenon Flappy Bird became or imagine being a world-famous game designer. “I was just making something fun to share with other people,” he says in the interview, with the help of a translator. “I couldn’t predict the success of Flappy Bird.”
He’s also quoted as saying, “Flappy Bird has unexpected effects. It causes addiction (in) people. I think it is an unexpected problem… and I have to remove it.“
Reaction
Dong Nguyen/image via Rolling Stone
So, I would say “thank you” to Nguyen if I was addicted to his bird flapping game…but I’m not buying his words.
Just like I wrote in my last post about Flappy Bird, Nguyen knew what he was doing when he took the game down. By publicly announcing that he was removing the game from the market, he only generated more downloads and further enhanced users’ potential risk for “addiction,” as he claims. Not to mention, Nguyen was generating $50,000 a day from advertisement revenue.
I just don’t buy it. If Nguyen truly cared about users becoming addicted, he would keep the game off the market and never bring it back.
Marketing?
I just feel that it is all a marketing technique. Just like how Justin Bieber “retired” last Christmas Eve. However, unlike Bieber, who claimed he would stop making music, Nguyen is still creating new games and has three games on the horizon. His games seem to be a real hit, so keep your eyes peeled.
You can see the Rolling Stone writer’s video about his interview with Nguyen here.
What do you think about Flappy Bird coming back on the market? Let me know in the comments below, or shoot me a Tweet @ceek22.
