On the other hand Game Centre is packed full of people with 9,999 pipes, which we assume is the limit of the game’s counter. Our Flappy Bird record stands at 19 pipes we imagine many people give up after hitting the first few pipes. Read my Forbes blog here.The distance between pipes is narrow, and your control over the Flappy Bird is clumsy and imprecise. Long live Flappy Bird.įollow me on Twitter or Facebook. These games are designed to hook you and then drain your wallet.Īnd maybe there's something noble-or foolish-about removing a game because of its addictive nature. Think Clash of Clans or Candy Crush Saga. Oddly enough, the very reason Nguyen gives for removing the app is the exact thing most mobile game developers strive to perfect: Addictiveness. Unlike traditional console and PC games, mobile games tend to spark to life in a big way and then fade out-unless you can really perfect a lucrative feedback loop. In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Nguyen said the game was designed to be played for just a few minutes at a time and instead became "an addictive product." Undoubtedly, he could have sold the game to any number of mobile publishers for bucketloads of cash, so it's hard not to take him at his word-though he has created other games and plans to continue to create more.įew video games "go viral" in the way that Flappy Bird has. The real reason Flappy Bird was taken down, according to its creator, was its potential for addiction in users and its negative impact on Nguyen's own "simple life." Truly, Flappy Bird is the Justin Bieber of mobile gaming.ġ0. Flappy Bird is helping the economy. Forbes contributor Paul Tassi has written many fine articles in his day, but none have generated the sort of traffic his post on Flappy Bird's removal received: Nearly 2 million pageviews and counting since Nguyen made the announcement. Nguyen's creation has spawned a laundry list of its own clones and knock-offs. If I were a game developer I would absolutely rip this one off and call it Flappy Crush Saga.ĩ. Flappy Bird itself may not be the most original game ever, but there's always room for even more derivative work. You can still buy Flappy Bird used. After pulling the game, savvy eBay users put devices installed with Flappy Bird up for auction. Many are listed for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Fans angry enough to threaten Nguyen's life over this should stock up on these devices before everyone forgets what Flappy Bird even is.Ĩ. Perhaps the secret to viral success is tapping into the death-threat crowd.ħ. Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has received death threats for pulling the game, proving once again that people are absolutely crazy and have altogether too much time on their hands.įlappy Bird's appeal is difficult enough to decipher that its most hardcore fans would stoop to death threats is beyond comprehension-though not altogether surprising in this business. Creating mobile games is more dangerous than we thought. “While we usually do not comment on the rumors and speculations, we have already denied the speculation,” Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa told The Wall Street Journal.Ħ. Despite the game's apparent knock-off of Nintendo assets, the Japanese game maker denies having any problem with Flappy Bird, squashing the notion that Nintendo influenced the decision to take down the game. (Potential game idea: Flappy Duck Dynasty.)ĥ. (Forbes' Paul Tassi gave the game Cthulhu/10, which may be my favorite review score of all time.) Truly, Flappy Bird is the reality TV show of the mobile gaming industry. Flappy Bird has received a 54/100 from critics on the game review aggregate site Metacritic, with a user score of just 4.6, making its sudden rise in popularity last month even more baffling. (Quite possibly more as news and hype continued to swirl around the game.)Ĥ. Think about it: Nguyen could have raked in millions more just by delaying Flappy Bird's demise-$950,000 more if he'd pulled it at the end of February instead of on the 9th. I have a hard time picturing myself walking away from that kind of cash-at least not without a gun pointed at my head. All of the revenue for the free app came from advertising. At the height of its popularity, Flappy Bird generated an estimated $50,000 per day according to The Verge.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |