Flappy Bird was about the best definition of a fad as you could imagine, sweeping up the public's attention in the blink of an eye and disappearing even faster. It attained millions of downloads in just days, and ceased being discussed when its creator Dong Nguyen suddenly pulled the game from mobile app stores for a variety of reasons. However, according to Nguyen you should expect it to come back...one day. He's mentioned before that he's considered it, but now sounds more definitive on the subject.
A fan reached out to the simple game's creator on Twitter, asking if he was going put Flappy Bird back on the app store, to which the 28-year-old Vietnamese developer responded "Yes. But not soon."
Nguyen removed the game from both the iOS App and Google Play stores pretty abruptly, citing the game's astronomical popularity. He didn't enjoy having so much attention from media and players on his quiet life, nor did he like the result it was having on the lives of others. He truly felt the game was degrading or ruining peoples' lives as they became obsessed with it.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, he explained how he heard about people who had lost their jobs because of the game, a mother who had stopped speaking with her children, and school children who had smashed their phones. "At first I thought they were just joking," Nguyen told the magazine. "But I realize they really hurt themselves."
It's pretty surprising how much the game affected people if these anecdotes are true, and you'd hope most wouldn't allow a simple game to influence them so much. You can't blame him too much for pulling the game if he felt it was a negative influence on society, especially since it was making him a lot of money. Despite this, perhaps when it won't create such a frenzy, Nguyen is willing to try again one day.
Source: CNET
