Flappy Bird, the mobile gaming phenomenon of 10 years ago, is ready to return to stores with a new look and enhanced by NFT.
Who remembers Flappy Bird? Between 2013 and 2014, the mobile phone video game developed by Vietnamese programmer Dong Nguyen, and clearly inspired by Super Mario, was a download phenomenon. As is often the case with microgaming, the fad passed quickly and the game disappeared from stores in less than a year. It seemed as if the canary was destined to rest forever and instead, it seems, it may soon be back in the news.
New Owners and New Suspects
The brand's original owner and creator was but a young programmer when he launched Flappy Bird, more for fun than as a business venture, and was taken by surprise by the immediate success of his application. The size of the phenomenon soon became unmanageable for the creator himself, who began thinking about removing it from stores as early as the summer of 2013, when the game was only a few weeks old. According to Nguyen, it was addictive. He himself could not stop playing it.
The revenue from advertising space sold probably changed his mind and the app remained downloadable for about eight months. Then it disappeared and, for about ten years, was never spoken of again. Today, it is back in the news because a new consortium, the Flappy Bird Foundation, has bought the rights to exploit the brand.
The creative director of this newly formed foundation, a rib of Gametech Holdings, is Michael Roberts, a professional who has worked for years in the NFT and cryptocurrency sector. The Foundation has already stated that the new Flappy Bird will contain non-fungible tokens inside. In all likelihood, it will be possible to make money from their disposal. This has caused rather lukewarm reactions from the game's still sizeable community of fans.
The risk of extreme monetisation threatens Flappy Bird
Players' suspicions are linked to both Roberts' presence at the top of the project and the presence of NFTs within the app. Many fear that there is only a desire to aggressively monetise by exploiting a famous name in mobile gaming, and that the resurrection of Flappy Bird is but a veil over such an operation.
Nguyen himself stated that he was convinced it was a GameFi operation, during a speech in which he emphasised that he was not involved with the new project in any way. The creator suggested that those who download it should beware of the microtransactions included in Flappy Bird 2.0.
The New Flappy Bird
I AM BACK!
Just a decade ago, I was the talk of the town and soaring to new heights with my 100 million friends. Sadly, I had to leave the fame and spotlight behind to go home and find out who I really am.
The Flappy Bird Foundation has released the technical and gameplay specifications for its build, due out in early 2025. This version will include new characters and some additional game modes that will aim to differentiate the user experience, thus encouraging them to spend more time in-app. There will be an easy mode for the more casual player, a competitive mode against 100 other users for those aspiring to make a name for themselves in the game's leaderboards, and a basketball-themed variant in which you have to push your character into baskets to score points.
This seems like an innocuous game application like so many available on the stores, yet rumours are coming from many quarters that it is just a cash-grabbing operation. In a few months we will know.
Donald Trump is preparing to launch a collection of digital trading cards that will be sold as NFT. Will he be able to revive a rather stale market in this way?
Who remembers Flappy Bird? Between 2013 and 2014, the mobile phone video game developed by Vietnamese programmer Dong Nguyen, and clearly inspired by Super Mario, was a download phenomenon. As is often the case with microgaming, the fad passed quickly and the game disappeared from stores in less than a year. It seemed as if the canary was destined to rest forever and instead, it seems, it may soon be back in the news.
New Owners and New Suspects
The brand's original owner and creator was but a young programmer when he launched Flappy Bird, more for fun than as a business venture, and was taken by surprise by the immediate success of his application. The size of the phenomenon soon became unmanageable for the creator himself, who began thinking about removing it from stores as early as the summer of 2013, when the game was only a few weeks old. According to Nguyen, it was addictive. He himself could not stop playing it.
The revenue from advertising space sold probably changed his mind and the app remained downloadable for about eight months. Then it disappeared and, for about ten years, was never spoken of again. Today, it is back in the news because a new consortium, the Flappy Bird Foundation, has bought the rights to exploit the brand.
The creative director of this newly formed foundation, a rib of Gametech Holdings, is Michael Roberts, a professional who has worked for years in the NFT and cryptocurrency sector. The Foundation has already stated that the new Flappy Bird will contain non-fungible tokens inside. In all likelihood, it will be possible to make money from their disposal. This has caused rather lukewarm reactions from the game's still sizeable community of fans.
The risk of extreme monetisation threatens Flappy Bird
Players' suspicions are linked to both Roberts' presence at the top of the project and the presence of NFTs within the app. Many fear that there is only a desire to aggressively monetise by exploiting a famous name in mobile gaming, and that the resurrection of Flappy Bird is but a veil over such an operation.
Nguyen himself stated that he was convinced it was a GameFi operation, during a speech in which he emphasised that he was not involved with the new project in any way. The creator suggested that those who download it should beware of the microtransactions included in Flappy Bird 2.0.
The New Flappy Bird
The Flappy Bird Foundation has released the technical and gameplay specifications for its build, due out in early 2025. This version will include new characters and some additional game modes that will aim to differentiate the user experience, thus encouraging them to spend more time in-app. There will be an easy mode for the more casual player, a competitive mode against 100 other users for those aspiring to make a name for themselves in the game's leaderboards, and a basketball-themed variant in which you have to push your character into baskets to score points.
This seems like an innocuous game application like so many available on the stores, yet rumours are coming from many quarters that it is just a cash-grabbing operation. In a few months we will know.
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