- Flappy Bird is making a return after 11 years
- Original developer Doug Nguyen isn’t involved in this Flappy Bird revival
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The side-scrolling phenomenon Flappy Bird is returning after more than a decade, but the original developer, Doug Nguyen, has publicly disassociated from the project.
Nguyen has assured fans he didn’t sell his mobile game to the Flappy Bird Foundation.
“I did not sell anything. I also don’t support crypto,” he posted on Twitter.
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The video game landscape has shifted significantly over the past decade, so Flappy Bird’s revival 11 years later won’t be purely in its original form. Instead, it will include new worlds, modes like basketball-themed challenges, and brand-new characters like the robotic bird Tekno and penguin Peng.
This new Flappy Bird will also include an “EZ Mode” for beginners and an online mode where 100 players will compete. The web version is due to launch in October with iOS and Android releases planned for 2025.
While its website describes it as “The official Flappy Bird,” this return is actually in the hands of “super Flappy Bird fans” at The Flappy Bird Foundation without Nguyen’s involvement.
Among those superfans is chief creative Michael Roberts, who is also associated with web3 firm 1208 Productions; hence, Nguyen’s anti-crypto comment.
The new Flappy Bird website states, “It’s really me!” and claims that this return has been a “decade-long mission” that involved “acquiring legal rights” and “working with [its] predecessor.” However, Nguyen has quashed this claim, publicly stating that he has no relation to this game.
The creator delisted the original Flappy Bird within days of its Android launch in 2014 as its huge popularity weighed heavily on his conscience; he believed it had become an “addictive product” rather than a pastime, so he took the game down despite an estimated daily ad revenue of $50,000.
In distancing himself from the re-release, it appears that stance holds firm.
