Well-known game IPs are both a gimmick and a burden, and traditional players’ resistance to Web3 and cryptocurrency is nothing new. On the other hand, with the dissatisfaction of the community after the airdrops of several major projects in the Ton ecosystem, it is unknown whether users can still have the confidence to participate.

Written by Zen, PANews

On September 12, IGN, a well-known entertainment and gaming media website, announced that the Flappy Bird Foundation had purchased the trademark and copyright of the viral mobile game "Flappy Bird" and would re-launch it in 2025 after adding new modes and characters to the classic game. On the same day, the Flappy Bird Foundation also posted on the X platform saying "I AM BACK!! ", but did not disclose specific details of the game. Even so, it immediately attracted the attention of the gaming community, and the number of views of the tweet quickly exceeded 7 million, which shows the influence of the game.

"Official news! Flappy Bird has landed on Telegram!" On September 16, the Flappy Bird Foundation released an announcement on the X platform, stating that the new game was officially launched on the popular Ton blockchain network in the Web3 version. However, the outside world's attention to this news has been greatly reduced - a large number of traditional players have already learned from social media that the "new Flappy Bird" is highly related to cryptocurrency, and it seems that this has lost their interest.

"Strange" comeback sparks controversy

Flappy Bird has become one of the most copied games in history in the past decade. Its return has aroused the interest of many old players. Among them, cybersecurity researcher Varun Biniwale was the first to study the new game. In Varun's subsequent article, he said that "the comeback of Flappy Bird is a bit strange."

The article pointed out that the original developer of Flappy Bird has nothing to do with the new game, and the project website contains cryptocurrency and "Web 3.0" elements. He also dug out a page that was suspected to have been deleted at the end of last year, which promoted the game like this: "The legendary Flappy Bird is back, and it will fly higher than ever on Solana because it has entered Web3.0." This shows that when the Solana ecosystem exploded at the end of last year, the Flappy Bird Foundation intended to release it on this ecosystem instead of the current Ton.

After the news of the return of "Flappy Bird" spread like wildfire, the original developer Dong Nguyen, who had long stopped releasing content on the X platform, tweeted 7 years later to clarify that he had nothing to do with the "new "Flappy Bird", he did not sell anything, and did not support cryptocurrency.

In addition, old Flappy Bird players also left community notes on the relevant content released by the Flappy Bird Foundation, reminding other players that this new game is different from the original game, and the words used are also sharp. For example, under the official tweet announcing Flappy Bird’s landing on Telegram, there is a note reminding: "This appears to be a cryptocurrency scam that uses fans’ nostalgia for the game to sell NFTs."

Regarding the trademark issue of the game, according to some court documents from the US Patent and Trademark Office, an American company called Gametech Holdings filed a lawsuit against Dong Nguyen over the trademark of the game. It turned out that because Flappy Bird had been shelved for so long that the game was considered abandoned, Gametech Holdings could get the trademark rights of the game for free, while Nguyen, who was criticized by old players for "inaction", never tried to reclaim the trademark. After Gametech Holdings obtained the trademark, it eventually transferred it to the so-called Flappy Bird Foundation.

How popular was Flappy Bird?

Flappy Bird is a casual mobile game released in May 2013 by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen. The mechanics of this viral game are very simple. Players only need to control a bird named Faby and control the bird's flight height by clicking the screen to avoid hitting the pipes. The game score depends on the number of pipes they pass through. Nguyen completed the game in just two or three days.

 

In early 2014, just like the WeChat mini-games "Jump Jump" and "Sheep Sheep" that became popular in a short period of time, "Flappy Bird" suddenly became popular and became the most downloaded iOS free game in the App Store at the end of January. During this period, "Flappy Bird" could earn $50,000 a day through in-app advertising and sales.

On February 10, 2014, Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store and Google Play. Dong Nguyen himself claimed that he felt guilty about the game's addictiveness and overuse. As the saying goes, "fame brings controversy." The popular Flappy Bird was actually criticized by many people at the time, including but not limited to being too difficult, suspected plagiarism in graphics and game mechanics, and being highly addictive.

However, even the removal of Flappy Bird has not helped some players to quit their addiction, and even allowed phones that had the game installed before it was removed to be sold online at high prices. The "clone" of Flappy Bird that was urgently released was also very popular on the App Store, but both Apple and Google removed it from their app stores because the games were too similar.

We want airdrops, and we will never sell NFTs!

Perhaps in response to the question of "taking advantage of fans' nostalgia for the game to sell NFTs", the Flappy Bird Foundation has recently begun to emphasize repeatedly that the new game "will never have NFTs". Players' concerns are not groundless. It is understood that the leader behind the Flappy Bird Foundation is game designer Michael Roberts, who is also the founder of the NFT project "Deez", which was launched in September 2021.

According to the Flappy Bird Foundation, players can choose to "integrate Web3" when playing games through Telegram, but users can also choose to opt out. In addition, the version of the game released on mobile platforms in the future will not have encryption functions and will be guaranteed to be free forever.

According to Cointelegraph, the new version of the game will make money through in-app transactions, and its in-app purchase plan "includes the purchase of more energy and items that can change the physics of flight." In addition, a spokesperson for the production team behind the new game said: "The game will also generate revenue from in-game advertising." He said that in-game ads are "completely optional for players to watch" and provide players with benefits such as score multipliers.

Currently, the game is running a "Flap to Earn" promotion and promises to airdrop $FLAP tokens in the future. As Catizen and Hamster Kombat, the hottest games in the Ton ecosystem, have completed airdrops, the Web3 version of Flappy Bird is entering the market at this time with the intention of taking over the banner. The success of the original game and the accumulated player base have indeed provided full confidence for the subsequent development of the new version.

However, on the one hand, well-known traditional game IPs are both gimmicks and burdens, and traditional players’ resistance to Web3 and cryptocurrency is nothing new. On the other hand, with the dissatisfaction of the community after the airdrops of several major projects in the Ton ecosystem, it is still unknown whether users can still have the confidence to participate.