Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has made it clear he has nothing to do with the new game, which was announced last week.
In his first post on X since 2017, Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen said: “No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything. I also don’t support crypto.”
The return of the 2014 viral sensation was announced last week, but it’s not a typical reboot or remake. As various internet sleuths, including X user Samperson, have noted, the rights to the Flappy Bird name have been dormant for so long that a company called Gametech Holdings LLC appears to have grabbed them from under the nose of Nguyen.
As a result, Flappy Bird’s revival has been met with skepticism. The game’s official site suggests the rights to the game have been acquired by a group of Flappy Bird superfans. But an X post from the new game’s profile directing readers to a news report about the title has had a community note added, which reads:
“This is not a community project, and the trademark was not bought. It was seized in court by Gametech Holdings LLC due to Nguyen’s inactivity, and seems to be a crypto scam/using fans nostalgia for the game to sell NFTs.”
Famously, creator Dong Nguyen pulled Flappy Bird from sale in 2014 after the craze around the game began to get out of control. In February of that year, Nguyen tweeted: “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.
He continued: “I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore…It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore…I also don’t sell ‘Flappy Bird’, please don’t ask…And I still make games.”
His studio, Dot Gears, later released several more very difficult retro-style games, including Swing Copters, Swing Copters 2 and Ninja Spinki Challenges, but they did not reach the same extraordinary heights that Flappy Bird did.
All of Dot Gears’ games have since been removed from sale on the App Store and Google Play, and the studio appears to have effectively closed.
