protos.com
A team of self-proclaimed Flappy Bird fans are seemingly re-releasing the Flappy Bird game as a crypto project, drawing serious flak from users on X (formerly Twitter).
The Flappy Bird reboot was announced yesterday, ten years after the original was taken off the app store. However, this new version of Flappy Bird has plans to make it a web3 game on Solana, describing it as “the world’s first open-source, community owned Web 2 and Web 3 game.”
Elsewhere, on a web-based version of the Flappy Bird game, it appears to mention a $FLAP Token that will be on Telegram’s blockchain, feature staking options, and give out free airdrops.
It is not clear whether the final cryptocurrency token will be launched on Solana or Telegram or why these pages are not prominently linked on the website; perhaps the cryptocurrency-related plans have been abandoned.
Elsewhere the project proclaims, “Artists, developers and creators can build, play and earn from the legendary Flappy Bird IP.” The chief creative for the Flappy Bird revival is reportedly Michael Roberts, who is also a cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind the NFT project “Deez.”
These cryptocurrency focused pages were found on the Flappy Bird sitemap. Many of these pages have been taken down today, following this controversy. The current Flappy Bird homepage appears to lack these crypto elements.
Flappy Bird crypto rebrand wasn’t well-received
Users have called the team behind the game “grifters,” described it as a “crypto Ponzi scheme,” and dubbed it a “crypto scam.”
Users are also unhappy with how the team acquired the rights to Flappy Bird. Indeed, on September 29, 2023, developer Gametech Holdings LLC filed a trademark dispute against Flappy Bird’s original creator, Dong Nguyen Ha.
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Nguyen didn’t defend the dispute and lost the rights to Flappy Bird while Gametech Holdings LLC claimed the IP. Indeed, within the Flappy Bird sitemap, it says, “We’ve flapped our way to acquiring the legal rights to the legendary Flappy Bird!”
Flappy Bird was famous in 2013 for its frustratingly addictive gameplay of moving a bird between pipes. It went viral and eventually led to its creator shutting the game down in February 2014 when the game’s fame became too much for Nguyen.