The new owners of mobile game revival Flappy Bird have released a statement to “clear the air” on their intentions, but are yet to acknowledge claims it’s based on cryptocurrency.
If you missed it, last week the Flappy Bird Foundation announced the game’s return as it had newly acquired the official rights.
Afterwards, original creator Dong Nguyen stated he had nothing to do with the revival. “I did not sell anything,” he wrote on social media. “I also don’t support crypto.”
Nguyen pulled the original game from sale in 2014 despite it generating a reported $50,000 a day in advertising revenue. His reasoning, he said at the time, was the game had “become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”
With the reveal of the game’s revival, the Flappy Bird Foundation – a team of self-proclaimed fans who claimed they were “committed to sharing the game with the world” – stated it had acquired the official rights from Gametech Holdings, as well as the rights to Piou Piou vs Cactus – a mobile game long credited as the inspiration behind Flappy Bird.
Now the group has doubled down on this statement.
“The Flappy Bird Foundation is a team of passionate fans of the Flappy Bird game published in 2013,” it wrote. “After the game was pulled from stores in 2014, like many others, we found ourselves unable to stop thinking about the game. The Flappy Bird trademark and brand was abandoned following the game’s takedown. Wanting to revive the game, we filed an application for the trademark and set out to bring the Flappy Bird game back to the community.”
It added, in fine print, that The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Mobile Media Partners Inc. the Flappy Bird trademark registration in 2018. This was acquired by Gametech Holdings in 2021, before the Flappy Bird Foundation acquired the trademark in August 2024.
Kek, the developer of Piou Piou vs. Cactus (and now a core founding member of the foundation), added: “I love that through the Flappy Bird Foundation we are able to breathe new life into the games I built and inspired. It’s incredible to work alongside such a dedicated team of fans and creators who are truly passionate.”
However, there’s no mention of cryptocurrency in this new statement.
Michael Roberts, the chief creative behind the Flappy Bird revival, is the Head of Studio at 1208 Productions (according to LinkedIn), a mobile game developer previously described on its website as “a pioneer in the Web 3 space”. Projects have included multiple NFT-based games (thanks ArsTechnica).
Then there’s an article acknowledged by Roberts on Blockchain Reporter, which states Flappy Bird’s return “takes a boost from strategic collaborations with chief names in the Web3 sector”. What’s more, the game’s first season on Telegram gives players “the chance to take part in a free-of-cost mining event”.
Flappy Bird will return this autumn, with dedicated mobile apps on iOS and Android due next year. Yet fans have been left confused about the true intentions of its new owners.