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Google and Apple are beginning to reject and remove clones of mobile sensation Flappy Bird, despite the fact it was pulled by its creator more than a week ago.
Ken Carpenter of Mind Juice Media said his app Flappy Dragon was rejected after Apple told him "we found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app".
As spotted by TechCrunch, developer Kuyi Mobile also tweeted that it knows of numerous developers have had their games rejected for containing the word Flappy in them.
The titles appear to be in violation of App Store guidelines, which forbid apps from containing "false, fraudulent or misleading representations" that attempt to use the name of a popular app to gain traction.
A spate of Flappy Bird copycats have already appeared on Google Play and the App Store, including current top free iOS app Splashy Fish – The Adventure of a Flappy Tiny Bird Fish.
Other clones include City Bird – Flappy Flyer, Floppy Bird, Clumsy Bird and Flappy Pig. Some clones that we previously reported on Develop appear to have either been taken down or have changed their names slightly to omit the mention of "Flappy Bird".
Flappy Bird was pulled over a week ago following intense media scrutiny of the title. Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen took the app down shortly after claming on Twitter the he "cannot take this anymore". He later suggested he pulled the title from stores as it had become an addictive product.
