Flappy Bird, the mobile game where you steer a stoic bird through a maze of pipes, is making a comeback. After originally being released over 10 years ago on mobile devices before it blew up into a pop culture sensation and became the ultimate time-killer, the game was purged from app stores. Now that the rights have the game have been acquired by a new group, they’re planning on bringing back Flappy Bird with new content and are aiming for a 2025 release on the iOS, Android, and PC platforms.
Flappy Bird was originally created by indie developer Dong Nguyen, but this rerelease of the addictive mobile game comes from the “Flappy Bird Foundation,” a group which also owns the rights for another game called Piou Piou which was long seen as a source of inspiration for Flappy Bird. Kek, the developer of Piou Piou, is actually the founding member of the Flappy Bird Foundation, so while there have definitely been Flappy Bird clones and imitators over the year, the fact that the group now owns the rights not only to the original Flappy Bird but also its inspiration means that this version of the mobile game does seem to be in the clear to make a full, seemingly authentic return.
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“Today is a milestone not just in gaming but for me personally,” Kek said about the return of Flappy Bird. “It’s so cool to see how influential Piou Piou has been for developers and hundreds of millions of gamers over the years. It’s incredible to work alongside such a dedicated team of fans and creators who are truly passionate about changing the industry narrative and together bringing the original Flappy Bird back to life.”
We say “seemingly authentic” because while this version of Flappy Bird does have everything it needs to be what people remembered, it’s already been confirmed that this Flappy Bird rerelease will have new content. The trailer above and the site set up for the game indicated that there will be new characters added called Trixy, Peng, Quirky, and Tekno as well as new game modes including one that sounds a lot like the Super Mario battle royale game.
Much of Flappy Bird‘s appeal came from its simplicity, so it’s easy to imagine a version of the game that’s overdone and overly complicated to the point that it becomes less of a time waster between obligations and instead is just another bogged-down mobile game. The announcement also mentions “progression” tracking in this new version of Flappy Bird with screenshots showing what looks like different currencies amid a board game-like map where you “restore worlds” and “awaken secrets.” No mention of the original Flappy Bird creator was found in the announcement.
The plan is to have Flappy Bird out next year on mobile devices as well as on the desktop and web browsers, so we’ll see between now and then what the new version of Flappy Bird looks like.
