Dong Nguyen, creator of the popular helicopter-like Flappy Bird, announced over Twitter recently that he would be taking down the game, but not for the reasons you may think.
Many users noted the similarity of the graphics of Flappy Bird to the Mario franchise, specifically the pipes and the fact that the bird is inspired by “Cheep Cheep” from Super Mario Bros, with some players even going so far as to claim that the art was “stolen”. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Nintendo spokesperson Yasuhiro Minagawa stated that the company had no complaints about Flappy Bird’s similarities to Super Mario Bros. Furthermore, the developer himself stated that the game was not being taken down due to legal reasons.
So then why has he made the decision to pull a game that was earning over $50,000 a day in ad revenue? To find the answers to that, one simply has to look at his Twitter feed. It appears that Nguyen was overwhelmed by the overnight success of the game, and the media attention that followed.
No developer can predict if they will be the next big thing, and, in this case, some don’t necessarily want to be. We at GameLuster wish Mr Nguyen nothing but the best for the future, and hope that this doesn’t discourage him from making games.
