Unhappy Bird.
A decade ago Flappy Bird, a crude but colourful autorun-style game, became a viral hit on mobile. It was so successful, in fact, that it became a millstone for its creator, Vietnamese programmer Dong Nguyen, who at the height of the game’s popularity (and profitability) made the unprecedented decision to remove the game from sale entirely. NGuyen would later rationalise his decision thus: “I can call Flappy Bird a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.”
The return of Flappy Bird has now been announced: but Nguyen is nowhere to be seen. This October relaunch comes from a group called The Flappy Bird Foundation, which the press release describes as “a new team of passionate fans committed to sharing the game with the world” who have “spearheaded the acquisition of the official trademark.”
The foundation acquired the trademark from the US company Gametech Holdings LLC, and here there’s a slight whiff of skullduggery. Dong Nguyen originally applied for the trademark in 2014, alongside a little drawing of the logo. This application then seemed to sit in limbo for many years, eventually being opposed by a Delaware-based company called Gametech.
As this was going on, the US patent office granted a trademark registration for Flappy Bird in 2018 (four years after the game was removed from sale) to another Delaware company called Mobile Media Matters. While I can’t be exact on the link between Mobile Media Matters and Gametech, both companies’ legal filings give the same Delaware address.
Subsequent to this there’s been a legal disagreement between Gametech and Dong Nguyen, except Nguyen doesn’t seem to have bothered representing himself or standing up for the trademark, which has ultimately led to it being classed as abandoned (a decade after he filed for it) and acquired by Gametech.
So… not really sure how to feel about that. It should be said that Nguyen quite explicitly wanted Flappy Bird out of his life, and has completely withdrawn from his online presence (his last tweets were seven years ago). Whether that makes it cool for others to just take the game over via lawyers and relaunch it as the “original” is another matter, but the US Patent and Trademark Office, in the absence of any defence from Nguyen, has acquiesced.
The Flappy Bird Foundation does have one ready-made comeback. As well as the rights to Flappy Bird it has acquired the rights to Piou Piou vs. Cactus, a mobile title that was the primary inspiration behind Flappy Bird, and employs the game’s creator who goes by the handle, ahem, of Kek.
“Today is a milestone not just in gaming but for me personally,” says Kek. “It’s so cool to see how influential Piou Piou has been for developers and hundreds of millions of gamers over the years. It’s incredible to work alongside such a dedicated team of fans and creators who are truly passionate about changing the industry narrative and together bringing the original Flappy Bird back to life.”
I’m not sure what “changing the industry narrative” is about. Way back in 2014, Kek said he’d contacted Nguyen about the resemblance, “and he told me he doesn’t think he knew about my game when he made Flappy Bird. The games are very similar. And even if I did not invent the gameplay concept, the graphics are very close, and, of course, the concept.”
The games are undeniably similar, but there are differences, and obviously the most important one is that, for whatever reason, Piou Piou didn’t do much while Flappy Bird went stratospheric with a similar idea three years later.
Needless to say, the announcement and press release of the Flappy Bird Foundation does not mention Dong Nguyen once. On the contrary, and perhaps this is what Kek means by changing the narrative, it claims Flappy Bird is all about “our classic and nostalgic gameplay” (yeah right) and that it will be “preserving the Flappy Bird IP.”
If this all sounds like a slightly grubby cash grab, given the veneer of respectability by roping-in an admittedly important figure in the Flappy Bird story, you’ve landed about where I have. Flappy Bird was a one-off phenomenon that became a cultural moment because of its rudimentary nature and the amusingly brutal endings behind its cartoon stylings. The game was a laugh but that’s all it was: what made it a great story was Nguyen’s reaction to being thrust in the spotlight, and refusing to play the part.
I’ve asked the Flappy Bird Foundation about aspects of the legal process, the links between Gametech and Mobile Media Matters, and how long it has spent trying to wrest this trademark from the game’s creator. I have also contacted Dong Nguyen’s solicitor. I’ll update with any response from either.
I suspect Nguyen couldn’t care less that something he made is now going to be exploited to the max by a group insisting that they just want “to give back to the global fan community.” What that means in practice is likely to be a boatload of microtransactions, alongside “new game modes, characters, progression, and massive multiplayer challenges.” Flappy Bird is back, I guess. But there’s a small bit of me that wants to see it smash straight into a pipe.
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