The Flappy Bird files: is the truth out there?
Death threats, inflated eBay auctions, clever marketing, lawsuits, app cloning, IP cloaking and bots -- the departure of Flappy Bird from app stores at the weekend has sparked an array of rumours, accusations and conspiracies.
A notoriously tricky and addictive game, Flappy Bird had been downloaded more than 50 million times since May 2013, and was the number one free game in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store charts.
I only downloaded Flappy Bird last Friday, and my highest score is still a pitiful 3, but it has already replaced Candy Crush Saga as the game I wish I’d never started playing. Annoying and compelling -- how an app should be. But since its Vietnam-based creator Dong Nguyen said at the weekend that he was clipping the wings of his feathery creation, there has been a scramble to discover the 'real truth' behind Flappy Bird's demise.
