Dong Nguyen, the creator of the original Flappy Bird, has taken to Twitter / X to confirm he is not involved with the newly-announced re-release of the game. Earlier in the month, a group known as The Flappy Bird Foundation Group revealed it had acquired the rights to the game and would be re-launching it by October 2024, with the hopes to expand it to new platforms by 2025.
“We are beyond excited to be bringing back Flappy Bird and delivering a fresh experience that will keep players engaged for years to come. We have big plans for our little Bird!” Michael Roberts, the person behind the revival said at the time.
Roberts also confirmed The Flappy Bird Foundation Group had engaged Kek, the developer of Piou Piou, to contribute. Piou Piou is the game that seemingly inspired the original version of Flappy Bird.
When the news came to light, many questioned the potential involvement of Flappy Bird creator, Dong Nguyen, who had previously been quite vocal about the harm the game had caused. Flappy Bird was released to great success in 2013, but was removed from storefronts in 2014 due to concerns about its addictive nature, and Nguyen’s own feelings of being overwhelmed.
“I am sorry Flappy Bird users, 22 hours from now, I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore,” Nguyen tweeted in 2014. Since then, Flappy Bird has remained unavailable on digital storefronts.
Read: Flappy Bird is returning, a decade after its removal from digital storefronts
The nature of Flappy Bird‘s removal suggested it would remain offline forever – but The Flappy Bird Foundation Group had other plans.
After viral stories about the return of Flappy Bird, Nguyen has confirmed he is not involved with this revival, and he did not specifically sell the rights to Flappy Bird.
“No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything,” Nguyen said. “I also don’t support crypto.”
This statement seems to corroborate earlier speculation that The Flappy Bird Foundation Group acquired the rights to Flappy Bird due to the IP being abandoned. Per analysis by Samperson on Twitter / X, it appears the rights were abandoned long enough that Gametech Holdings was able to successfully file against Nguyen to claim the rights to Flappy Bird. The Flappy Bird Foundation Group reportedly acquired the rights from Gametech.
Notably, the new version of Flappy Bird is backed by a company known as 1208 Productions, which is a Web3 firm expertise in NFTs, the “metaverse” and crypto. No plans for Flappy Bird crypto have been announced just yet, but it does appear this is a future possibility.
