He simply saw the writing on the wall; Nintendo was going to sue the frigging pants off him for outright stealing the entire premise and artwork of his "game" (particularly as they reorganize their mobile department and say goodbye to the Wii U).
I wouldn't even be surprised if he has a Cease and Desist order on his desk right now that he's conveniently not talking about.
Unless there is some reason he's not mentioning, he should have kept it up and given the money to charity. You can do a lot of good with $50k/day--almost definitely more than the harm done by that game.
Once again, people are acting as if it's evil to not want to be rich. Except he's already made a ton of money! Who the hell cares if he's giving up a little extra. I find it ridiculous that in a society where we loathe the rich, it's simultaneously dishonorable to not aspire to be rich yourself.
Do we really loathe the rich?
Steve was a billionaire. Jony has hundreds of millions.
Steve was a billionaire. Jony has hundreds of millions.
Many don't loathe the rich, in general. It's just the way they acquired their money that is loatheable. Many feel this way from the likes of Bill Gates, Carl Icahn and David Einhorn.
I do agree, his reasons do sound a little off. However, not everyone's reasons are going to sound rational to others. Some folks aren't about money, or they actually fear having it. Others can't handle any amount of fame - or they think they could and when it happens they feel cornered.
There are brilliant (and not so brilliant) but very reclusive and eccentric people out there, who are motivated in vastly different ways than what were used to, and who react to certain things in ways you and I might find irrational.
That rise to the top of the chart happened before the PewDiePie video, which was uploaded January 27th so the video probably just helped increase the downloads. It's possible it made $50,000 a day since about January 10th but not before. That's still over $1m and it doesn't stop generating money after taking it out the store.
Getting to the top of the App Store charts is the key to making it big. Although they determine initial popularity, once the apps get in the chart, they act as advertising to the 65 million+ downloaders per day. It takes over 70k per day to make it into the top ten.
Addictive? Uh huh. Played it for five minutes before growing annoyed with it's poor design and control mechanics, and deleted it. He was probably tired of getting death threats over the stupid thing.
If this is not a pr game.... Then There is something seriously wrong with thus guy! If he has no interest in the 50k a day personally ... And he is this nice concerned individual... he should also be considering how much 50 k a day can help his community through charitable contribution!
Ok, since no one else's is stepping up, I'll play conspiracy theorist.
I was just reading over at Gruber's site, how Doug Nguyen was several hours late to his Forbes interview in Hanoi, because he "had a sudden meeting with Vietnam's deputy prime minister". It goes on to note that it was "a remarkable turn of events for someone unknown a week ago", and that the interview was conditional- Forbes was not allowed to reveal Nguyen's face.
Theory #1: Nguyen is hiding from something in his past, and doesn't want to found.
Theory #2: Someone or some organization is shaking him down under threat of harm to him or his loved ones.
Theory #3: He had been contacted by a government agency (not necessarily Japanese), and was either already working with them, or was asked to do so for the purpose of spying through the game.
Just having a bit of fun here. Don't get your panties all bunchy.
He obviously felt it was a problem (from his comments) and did not want to be responsible for something he felt addicting. I applaud him following his conscious. I personally would have found a way like donating some significant portion to an addiction foundation. Diff strokes of different folx.
Well it's his fault that he made the game too good. He built the controls, the physics, the scoring, etc.
It was obviously a fun game that people wanted to keep playing over and over. That's kinda what you want when you build an ad-supported game. He knew what he was doing... it wasn't an accident.
So what would the alternative be.... build a crappy game that people don't want to play often?
Actually... I heard that a lot of people hated Flappy Bird and deleted it after the first few plays. Very frustrating gameplay.
So was it addictive or not? I've seen no evidence... especially not in the short time that it was popular. I don't think Dr. Phil will have an episode titled "Flappy Bird: Dangerous Addiction"
Most mobile games have a short lifespan anyway. Even if Flappy Bird had remained... something else would have eventually taken its place in popularity.
Everyone is complaining about how one man lives his life, with the actions in question affecting NO ONE directly. The incredulous and hateful reactions show a lot more about our culture than about some indie game dev in Vietnam.
He sounds like he has Aspergers. They are renowned for being excellent at coding (or other very clever things) but lousy in interpersonal relationships and often want - no, *need* - absolute privacy to function at all or they can have meltdowns. While you and I might not see people playing our game as "interpersonal relationships" for someone with Aspergers they can feel like an overwhelming intrusion into your life. And then there's the media coverage...
I have sympathy for him. Some people don't seek and can't handle fame. Some people can.
1) He is from a culture utterly different from the west. Who here in the west knows the intricacies of Vietnamese cultural standards and mores?
2) He lives in a totally different society from the west. Particularly where government, law, business and money is concerned. Again, few here in this forum are likely to know much about what daily life is like in current day Vietnam. Or how tech businesses work there. Technology growth and development has been huge there over the last decade or two.
3) The government there is intrusive and we did read that he met with the deputy prime minister. That could either be good or bad. In case you didn't know it is still a socialist/communist state with all the complications and baggage that comes with that.
This could all be nothing more than "life is different where he lives" and we just can't relate. I worked with a guy from Vietnam who escaped with his family when he was young. He later went back to visit and took his young American born son with him. He told me it was very strange to him now. However, he was very happy to be able to go back and see his home country, friends and relatives.
Comments
He simply saw the writing on the wall; Nintendo was going to sue the frigging pants off him for outright stealing the entire premise and artwork of his "game" (particularly as they reorganize their mobile department and say goodbye to the Wii U).
I wouldn't even be surprised if he has a Cease and Desist order on his desk right now that he's conveniently not talking about.
Unless there is some reason he's not mentioning, he should have kept it up and given the money to charity. You can do a lot of good with $50k/day--almost definitely more than the harm done by that game.
Once again, people are acting as if it's evil to not want to be rich. Except he's already made a ton of money! Who the hell cares if he's giving up a little extra. I find it ridiculous that in a society where we loathe the rich, it's simultaneously dishonorable to not aspire to be rich yourself.
Do we really loathe the rich?
Steve was a billionaire. Jony has hundreds of millions.
Many don't loathe the rich, in general. It's just the way they acquired their money that is loatheable. Many feel this way from the likes of Bill Gates, Carl Icahn and David Einhorn.
flappy bird noooooo!!!!
I do agree, his reasons do sound a little off. However, not everyone's reasons are going to sound rational to others. Some folks aren't about money, or they actually fear having it. Others can't handle any amount of fame - or they think they could and when it happens they feel cornered.
There are brilliant (and not so brilliant) but very reclusive and eccentric people out there, who are motivated in vastly different ways than what were used to, and who react to certain things in ways you and I might find irrational.
Well said.
Quadra 650
It only became popular recently. This site has a chart of the App Store position:
http://marketingland.com/viral-rise-fall-flappy-bird-73479
That rise to the top of the chart happened before the PewDiePie video, which was uploaded January 27th so the video probably just helped increase the downloads. It's possible it made $50,000 a day since about January 10th but not before. That's still over $1m and it doesn't stop generating money after taking it out the store.
Getting to the top of the App Store charts is the key to making it big. Although they determine initial popularity, once the apps get in the chart, they act as advertising to the 65 million+ downloaders per day. It takes over 70k per day to make it into the top ten.
The more folks play a game the more they demand bug fixes, improvements etc.
It's possible the issue was that he didn't want to have to do any more work on it.
Addictive? Uh huh. Played it for five minutes before growing annoyed with it's poor design and control mechanics, and deleted it. He was probably tired of getting death threats over the stupid thing.
We aint stupid!
If he has no interest in the 50k a day personally ... And he is this nice concerned individual... he should also be considering how much 50 k a day can help his community through charitable contribution!
Ok, since no one else's is stepping up, I'll play conspiracy theorist.
I was just reading over at Gruber's site, how Doug Nguyen was several hours late to his Forbes interview in Hanoi, because he "had a sudden meeting with Vietnam's deputy prime minister". It goes on to note that it was "a remarkable turn of events for someone unknown a week ago", and that the interview was conditional- Forbes was not allowed to reveal Nguyen's face.
Theory #1: Nguyen is hiding from something in his past, and doesn't want to found.
Theory #2: Someone or some organization is shaking him down under threat of harm to him or his loved ones.
Theory #3: He had been contacted by a government agency (not necessarily Japanese), and was either already working with them, or was asked to do so for the purpose of spying through the game.
Just having a bit of fun here. Don't get your panties all bunchy.
Well it's his fault that he made the game too good. He built the controls, the physics, the scoring, etc.
It was obviously a fun game that people wanted to keep playing over and over. That's kinda what you want when you build an ad-supported game. He knew what he was doing... it wasn't an accident.
So what would the alternative be.... build a crappy game that people don't want to play often?
Actually... I heard that a lot of people hated Flappy Bird and deleted it after the first few plays. Very frustrating gameplay.
So was it addictive or not? I've seen no evidence... especially not in the short time that it was popular. I don't think Dr. Phil will have an episode titled "Flappy Bird: Dangerous Addiction"
Most mobile games have a short lifespan anyway. Even if Flappy Bird had remained... something else would have eventually taken its place in popularity.
Everyone is complaining about how one man lives his life, with the actions in question affecting NO ONE directly. The incredulous and hateful reactions show a lot more about our culture than about some indie game dev in Vietnam.
There's also this http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-indie-developers-go-insane.html
And then a simple illustration about earning lots of money https://medium.com/launching-ux-launchpad/385ff833f9c8
I have sympathy for him. Some people don't seek and can't handle fame. Some people can.
Some thoughts:
1) He is from a culture utterly different from the west. Who here in the west knows the intricacies of Vietnamese cultural standards and mores?
2) He lives in a totally different society from the west. Particularly where government, law, business and money is concerned. Again, few here in this forum are likely to know much about what daily life is like in current day Vietnam. Or how tech businesses work there. Technology growth and development has been huge there over the last decade or two.
3) The government there is intrusive and we did read that he met with the deputy prime minister. That could either be good or bad. In case you didn't know it is still a socialist/communist state with all the complications and baggage that comes with that.
This could all be nothing more than "life is different where he lives" and we just can't relate. I worked with a guy from Vietnam who escaped with his family when he was young. He later went back to visit and took his young American born son with him. He told me it was very strange to him now. However, he was very happy to be able to go back and see his home country, friends and relatives.
Ok, since no one else's is stepping up, I'll play conspiracy theorist.
. . .
Just having a bit of fun here. Don't get your panties all bunchy.
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive.
But Esteban has got it right,
Don’t let your buns get uptight.