Flappy Bird’s back in the air

FLAPPY Bird will return to the App Store in August, six months after it was removed, its creator has said.

The game was downloaded more than 50 million times before its Vietnamese creator, Dong Nguyen, pulled it from the App Store to global dismay, claiming the game had “ruined my simple life”.

Now he has told US news station CNBC that he plans to reinstate the game, which will include multiplayer capacities and is designed to be less addictive than the original.

The game, which involved tapping your device’s screen to propel a small bird through a series of strategically placed pipes, was released in May last year to little acclaim.

In January, it began to gain momentum quickly, but at the height of its popularity Nguyen pulled it from download, saying it was “gone forever”.

He told CNBC that he did not regret creating the game, but he wished people would do more productive things with their time.

Flappy Bird’s popularity has resulted in numerous spin-offs starring Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and even London’s mayor, Boris Johnson.

In March, about one-third of new apps uploaded to Apple’s App Store were Flappy Bird clones. — © The Daily Telegraph, London