That seems to be the case with 2014’s biggest app craze to date: Flappy Bird, a simple game created and developed by Dong Nguyen, a Vietnamese video game developer, who never intended the app to be such a success.Īlthough the application was released in May 2013, it gained increasing popularity and subsequently topped the app charts in January 2014.This application was so universally enticing that it became too popular for its creator. However, if you are able to synchronize strong app development and a clear and concise marketing message, you could see some noteworthy results. It seems that popular app trends develop as quickly as fashion ones, and it is difficult to know which will become the next greatest hit. Vietnam has a small but thriving software and games development sector and the global publicity surrounding Flappy Bird is likely to help it grow, experts say.Mobile application fads are always changing.

'Mark Zuckerberg never thought of letting Facebook die, even for a second,' Tung wrote, urging Dong to fight for the future of his games, for himself and other Vietnamese software developers. Supporting Dong would 'help Vietnam start to shine on the world technology map' and it was a shame that parts of the Vietnamese online community turned on him instead, he wrote.Īvid fan Tran Khanh Tung wrote on the VNExpress site that it was a 'deadly mistake' to remove Flappy Bird from online stores.

'The whiff of money created a storm of jealousy, dragging down a shining new talent,' Quan The Dan wrote in an op-ed in VNExpress. Local online newspaper VNExpress quoted Dong - who also has two other games in the top 10 in online stores - as saying he created the game in a matter of days following 'a weird design style'.Īfter revealing the sizeable revenues Flappy Bird was bringing in, Dong has been subject to a torrent of criticism and abuse in Vietnamese online forums, leading some observers to speculate that it prompted his decision to withdraw the game. Some Vietnamese online commentators have speculated that Dong took down the game after being pressured by Japan's Nintendo - Flappy Bird's simple graphics appear to owe some debt to Nintendo's early Mario brothers games.īut a Nintendo spokesman told AFP Monday: 'Our company has not taken any action this time.' Withdrawing the game 'may be a PR stunt or may be due to legal pressure or maybe he's sick of the press. The free game has been the number one app in Apple's iOS App Store in more than 100 countries, according to An Minh Do, editor at the Tech in Asia online media company. The aim of the game is to direct a flying bird between oncoming sets of pipes without touching them.ĭong has said in interviews that his brainchild was pulling in as much as $50,000 per day in revenue from online advertising banners. I just cannot keep it anymore,' Dong tweeted from his handle - which has seen its follower count grow by tens of thousands in the last few days.įlappy Bird features 2D retro-style graphics. 'It is not anything related to legal issues. I cannot take this anymore,' he wrote Saturday in a message that had been retweeted nearly 140,000 times by Monday afternoon.įlappy Bird was not available on the US or UK Apple app stores on Monday. 'I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. So now I hate it,' the game's creator Nguyen Ha Dong tweeted. Technology experts say the addictive and notoriously difficult game rose from obscurity at its release last May to become one of the most downloaded free mobile games on Apple's App Store and Google's Play store.

Nguyen Ha Dong, creator of the game Flappy Bird, is pictured in Hanoi on February 5, 2014

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