Earlier today, we reported that Flappy Bird will once again take to the air on the iPhone later this year, after being absent from the App Store nest for ten long years. The game was pulled from the App Store back in February 2014, after the game’s creator said the game was too addictive.
Unfortunately, it now appears that Flappy Bird’s “comeback” may simply be a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme dressed up in a feathered boa.
The alleged new Flappy Bird game would supposedly feature the well-known classic arcade mode, as well as new characters and game modes, including an easy mode, a basketball mode, and a “battle royale” mode.
New characters were said to include Trixie, Peng, Tekno, and Quirky, all of which appear to have individual superpowers.
While many of us, this reported included, were happy to hear about the alleged return of the Flapmeister, some were a bit more skeptical about the announcement. There may have been good reason for the skepticism, as Cyber-security researcher Varun Biniwale has discovered hidden pages on the Flappy Bird website that indicate the whole return is simply a crypto scheme.
Biniwale has discovered several hidden pages on the Flappy Bird website that refer to Web 3, micro-transactions, and the cryptocurrency Solana. He also discovered a playable version of the game a leaderboard full of crypto-based usernames and the games code includes references to a “$FLAP” token.
A quick google search for
site:flappybird.orgreveals some pages on the site.[…]
The last page “3-$Flap” reveals what this all may really be about.
This page seems to suggest that the original plan of the project revolved around cryptocurrency and “Web 3.0”. Some people may refer to these kinds of projects as “grifts”.
As we reported on Thursday, Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen in February 2014 pulled the game from the Apple App Store and Google Play store in February 2014, saying that playing the game was so addictive that it became “a problem.”
While it may appear at first blush that Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen had sold the game’s trademark to another company to make some quick cash, that does not appear to be what had happened.
Inverse reports that court documents show that a firm going by the moniker “Gametech Holdings” filed to grab the trademark back in September 2023. The company petitioned the court, claiming that Nguyen had abandoned the Flappy Bird trademark. The court ruled that the trademark had indeed been abandoned, awarding the right to purchase the trademark to Gametech Holdings.
Once Gametech Holdings got its paws on the tradematk, it sold it off to The Flappy Bird Foundation. As reported by VideoGamer, that company is headed up by game designer Michael Roberts, who is also studio head at 1208 Productions, which promotes itself as a “pioneer in the Web 3 space.”
Unfortunately, these discoveries indicate that return of Flappy Bird won’t be flying high, but will instead be a crypto scheme by some “crypto bros” with no connection whatsoever to the original Flappy Bird game other than the trademark.
(Image generated with Bing Image Creator)
