A Decade Later, 'Flappy Bird' Returns

Flappy Bird, the delisted viral mobile game hit from a decade ago, is making a comeback. Original developer Dong Nguyen's involvement is unclear, but his name doesn't appear anywhere on the re-release's website, which mentions that a new team has purchased the rights to the game and has been developing it for relaunch. The revamped Flappy Bird promises new characters, new gameplay modes, and a progression system.

In the original Flappy Bird, you played as a bird and had to avoid flying into green pipes that looked a lot like the ones from Super Mario Bros. You had one hit before game over, and this simple but addictive gameplay loop took the game to the top of the App Store charts. Developer Dong Nguyen surprised everyone when he abruptly took the game offline in 2014, posting "I cannot take this anymore" to Twitter (now X), but now a group called The Flappy Bird Foundation is bringing it back.

In a note sent to press and cited by IGN, this new group has claimed that it's planning to release Flappy Bird for mobile in 2025 (and even sooner to browsers). The group's statement says that it acquired the trademark from Gametech Holdings LLC, a company based in the U.S. It's unclear how this company acquired the trademark from the original developer.

Alongside the note and new website, the Flappy Bird Foundation also posted a trailer to its YouTube channel, showing off some of the new visuals as well as a a new game mode. It's still unclear how the developers plan to monetize the title, but like other mobile games, it's likely that the new Flappy Bird will be a freemium game supported by ads, microtransactions, or both.

As for me, I can't help but wonder whether the time for Flappy Bird has passed. It was a viral sensation in 2014, but after it was pulled, clones have kept it around long enough for people to get their fill and move on. Still, the market for mobile games is a lot larger now, and even if the game is only moderately popular, that could be enough for it to build a larger player base today than its original version had a decade ago.