In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen revealed the real reason he removed the extremely popular game from the App Store and the Google Play Store.
In the interview, Nguyen said the game's addictiveness is what convinced him to remove it and guaranteed the app is not coming back to the market, according to Forbes.
"Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed," Nguyen said "But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever."
Nguyen has other popular games in the iOS store and denied removing the app after receiving non-existant threats from Nintendo, Forbes reported.
The developer added that if any of his other games becomes as equally addictive as Flappy Bird, he will not hesitate to also pull them from stores, according to Forbes.
Besides the apparent guilt over Flappy Bird's addictiveness, Nguyen said he "couldn't sleep" and his life was not "as comfortable as...before" due to the apps popularity and addictiveness, leading him to ultimately removing it forever, Forbes reported.
Nguyen seems to place a high price on privacy, and only agreed to give his first interview in regards to Flappy Bird on the condition that photos of him would not be shown, according to Forbes.
Nguyen did not confirm the exact amount he made with Flappy Bird, but says it was a large amount, Forbes reported.
Even though it was removed from the market, Flappy Bird can still be played on the devices it was already installed on, and other web-based clones of the game and a Pebble app version are available, according to Forbes.
For the hardcore fans, devices previously installed with Flappy Bird can be purchased from eBay at some pretty extreme prices, Forbes reported.
