Flappy Bird may return as a Web3 game, original developer denies involvement

Odaily Odaily NewsLast week, the Flappy Bird Foundation announced that the mobile game "Flappy Bird" is about to return. However, Dong Nguyen, the original developer of Flappy Bird, did not say that this was a return, and said that he was not involved at all and had no connection with the game. Nguyen posted on X (this was his first post since 2017) that he did not "sell anything and did not support cryptocurrency." In an announcement shared with the media last week, the Flappy Bird Foundation wrote that it had "acquired the rights from Gametech Holdings, LLC," which acquired the trademark from Nguyen, but this did not seem to be the result of a transaction between him and the organization. X user Samperson discovered that Gametech filed an objection to Nguyen's Flappy Bird trademark in 2023. The US Patent and Trademark Office determined that his trademark had been abandoned and terminated his claim to the trademark in January of this year. The Flappy Bird Foundation did not say in its announcement that Nguyen was involved, but they paid considerable attention to mobilizing players' nostalgia when promoting the game. The Flappy Bird Foundation’s hidden website page suggests that cryptocurrency may play a role in the game’s release. In a blog post on September 12, researcher Varun Biniwale discovered a page on the site that has now gone offline and said that Flappy Bird “will fly higher than ever before on Solana as it soars to Web 3.0.” The page also added that it will be a “Web3 game” with a “play to earn” feature, and also mentioned “stake to own” and “free airdrops.” (Cointelegraph)