Following the announcement of Flappy Bird's relaunching, the worldwide sensation mobile side-scroller's original creator, Dong Nguyen, has broken his silence on the “flappy” situation.
Flappy Bird Original Creator Does Not Support Crypto-Backed Relaunching
Dong Nguyen Resurrects on Twitter (X) to Comment on Flappy Bird Revival
Taking to Twitter (X) after years of silence, Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen confirmed that he plays no part in the return of the mobile game sensation. Nguyen recently tweeted out quite succinctly, "No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything. I also don't support crypto."
The previous week came with the news of Flappy Bird returning as a revamped game, as a group called The Flappy Bird Foundation announced that it is relaunching Flappy Bird, despite its original creator's decision to shutter the game for good. Flappy Bird will be relaunched on iOS and Android as well as other platforms next year following the acquisition of its trademark.
In its announcement last week, The Flappy Bird Foundation said that it obtained the official Flappy Bird trademark, along with the trademark for the game Piou Piou vs. Cactus, which the original Flappy Bird is widely believed to be based on. It appeared that the group acquired the trademark from Gametech Holdings LLC, which previously had obtained the trademark rights from Dong Nguyen.
New Flappy Bird Appears to Contain Crypto
The Flappy Bird Foundation is led by Michael Roberts—designer and head of 1208 Production, an "indie production company" that describes itself as a "pioneer in the web 3 space," heavily involved in NFT and cryptocurrency. "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," Roberts said in a statement.
Flappy Bird's return was met with mixed reception—some celebrating the worldwide sensation's comeback, while others were rather scathing with their criticism, especially with the new Flappy Bird appearing to be "crypto-backed." As recently picked up by news site The Verge, a cybersecurity researcher by the name of Varun Biniwale had reported on "hidden pages" they have found from the new Flappy Bird website, which demonstrate that The Flappy Bird Foundation's game could contain such elements.
"A quick google search for site:flappybird.org reveals some pages on the site," Biniwale shared on his site. Among the pages Biniwale found, one stated that "Flappy Bird will now be the world’s first open-source, community owned Web 2 and Web 3 game."
"This page seems to suggest that the original plan of the project revolved around cryptocurrency and 'Web 3.0'. Some people may refer to these kinds of projects as 'grifts'," Biniwale shared further. "I found that the oldest pages seem to be from around December 2023, and many of these pages reference 'web3' and crypto in a few places."
Source:
Varun Biniwale: There's something fishy about the Flappy Bird revival
The Verge: Flappy Bird’s original creator says he has nothing to do with the new game
