The creator of “Flappy Bird” — a free smartphone game that quickly soared to number one on both Apple and Android’s app stores — removed the game from available downloads at noon on Sunday.
App designer Nguyen Ha Dong, a self-described “passionate indie game maker” from Vietnam, had announced the move the on Twitter the day before.
“I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore,” Dong posted at 2 a.m. ET Saturday.
Hey Dong, are you okay?
Some fifty million Android users have downloaded the relatively simplistic Flappy Bird, in which gameplay consists of steering a bird through pipes with repetitive finger taps.
And, although the game fetches $50,000 a day from advertisements, “it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it,” Dong wrote.
“It is not anything related to legal issues,” he added, even though Dong’s friends told Reuters Nintendo had sent him a warning letter because the game has a very “Mario Brothers” look to it.
I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014
