'Flappy Bird' Game Will Disappear Tomorrow, According to Developer

Warning: This is another Flappy Bird post.

I don’t typically play the viral games of the moment. To this day, I’ve not once played FarmVille. When Candy Crush Saga was all the rage, I avoided it. But something about Flappy Bird really pulled me in. Perhaps it was the similarity to that time-sucking helicopter game. Maybe it was the fact that you could play without splurging real-life money on anything. Whatever the reason, I’m glad I wound up downloading the game, because according to the developer, it’ll be pulled offline tomorrow.

The tweet below comes from Dong Nguyen, the Vietnamese developer behind the app.

I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.

— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014

Why pull Flappy Bird offline? Based on later tweets, it seems that Nguyen is unhappy with the amount of attention he’s been receiving, even though that attention has likely netted him some decent dough thanks to in-app advertising. There’s also a hint of disdain in Nguyen’s updates, as though he’s disappointed people find Flappy Bird fun and addictive. In that regard, he sounds like a sort of tortured artist who thinks all of his work is garbage; meanwhile, Flappy Bird has been at the top of the Android and iOS app stores with no signs of slowing down.

This could all be an elaborate scheme to drive more downloads, of course, so we’ll be carefully watching both app stores to see if Flappy Bird is actually removed. If you’re not willing to chance it and you want to see what the game is all about, I suggest you go download it (iOS, Android) ASAP.

And be sure to share your high scores with us if you decide to play.