The creator of the monster mobile game hit Flappy Bird has confirmed that it will return to app stores in August.
In an interview with CNBC, developer Dong Nguyen revealed that he would return Flappy Bird to the App Store, Google Play Store, and Windows Phone Store in a slightly altered guise.
The new version will apparently feature a multiplayer mode, and will be less addictive.
If that last bit sounds a little odd, then you have to look back at Nguyen’s professed reasons for removing his hit game from availability in the first place.
At its peak, the ad-funded game was raking in $50,000 a day for its single Vietnamese creator. Then, in February of this year, Dong Nguyen announced that he was pulling it.
"I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore," Nguyen tweeted.
Apparently the pressure and attention that accompanied his game’s huge success was too much to take, but there was another crucial reason. Nguyen struggled with complaints that his game was simply too addictive, and was damaging the lives of some of its players.
All of which explains why Nguyen claims to have made his returning game less addictive. How this will manifest itself in such a simple game - all you do is guide a bird up and down through narrow gaps - is unclear. Making the game deliberately worse would be a strange move indeed.
We’ll know more come August.
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