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UPDATE: Flappy Bird has been taken down from the Apple App Store, following yesterday’s decision by the game’s developer Dong Nguyen to take the popular title offline.
The game has also been pulled from the Google Play store on Android devices.
Original story: The developer of hit mobile sensation Flappy Bird has said he will be removing the game from all app stores following intense scrutiny of the title.
In a series of tweets, Vietnam-based creator Dong Nguyen said Flappy Bird will be taken offline 22 hours from now, as he "cannot take this anymore".
He stated his decision had nothing to do with legal issues.
Despite deciding to axe the title, Nguyen said he would stay in game development.
"I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore," he tweeted.
He added: "It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore. I also don’t sell ‘Flappy Bird’, please don’t ask. And I still make games."
Released last year, Flappy Bird has since become one of the most popular games on the App Store and Google Play, and is currently ranked as the top free app on iOS.
Such is the title’s success, it has been reported that it is generating $50,000 a day from ad revenues, and has been downloaded more than 50 million times.
The title was the subject of close scrutiny by media outlets however, and there had been suggestions that some of the game’s artwork, such as the pipes which players must avoid, had a likeness to pipes featured in Mario titles.
There were also allegations that bots had been used to boost the game’s popularity on the App Store, although the developer has denied this.
