Flappy Bird returns on Amazon Fire TV - Multiplayer Platform lends to family-friendiness and a Less Addictive Design

Flappy Birds is back! But not for smartphones, apparently!

Rather, it’s available exclusively on Amazon Fire TV as stated in “FLAPPY BIRD FLIES AGAIN AS FLAPPY BIRDS FAMILY … BUT ONLY ON AMAZON’S FIRETV”, published  August 1, 2014 By Ryan Waniata, DigitalTrends. 

Vietnamese Developer Dong Nguyen, founder of Game Development Studio DotGears, who’s listed himself as its sole employee has apparently made good on his promise to return Flappy Bird in August 2014 to Amazon Fire TV as stated in “Flappy Bird Returns As A Multiplayer Game… But Only For Amazon’s Fire TV”, published Aug 1, 2014 by Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch.

Only this time it’s called Flappy Bird Family and it’s exclusively for the Amazon Fire TV.

Something tells me that this isn’t going to sit well with the Casual Gaming community! But it fits with his personality, as after all, Dong Nguyen had yanked the game originally in February 2014 because it WAS TOO POPULAR as stated in my blog article entitled “Developer Dong Nguyen takes down US$50000 a day Flappy Bird App - Unwanted Media Attention leaves DotGears Game as the first In-App Advertising Gaming App”.

Apparently he was getting flamed by jealous copycats as well as parents concerned about its addictive nature that was so distracting. After all, for these smartphone toting teenagers used to cheating at games or paying their way to the top, it must have been pretty frustrating to play a game that so simple in its premise yet was basically an arcade-level Game clothed in Casual robes.  

Those parents may have been even more enraged when they discovered that Dong Nguyen was NOT American, but was making some US$50,000 per month from Advertising revenue!

Flappy Bird on Amazon Fire TV – Less Addictive design with more Amazon money for exclusivity

Trust me folks, that was a lot of money to walk away from. But it shows you the character of Dong Nguyen; he’s more interested in making a great game that one for which he’s vilified for, a point of view that may have been driven by his religious beliefs as noted in “The Flight of the Birdman: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out”, published March 11, 2014 BY DAVID KUSHNER, Rolling Stones.

Still, Amazon must have paid him a boatload of money to get the game for Amazon Fire TV. Their US$99 Gaming and TV Streaming platform was launched in April of 2014 as described in my blog article entitled “Amazon launches Amazon Fire TV Set Top and Gaming Console - Amazon Prime Delight challenges Apple iTV, enflames Cord-Cutter's Nirvana portending Console Gaming Renaissance”.

This was to the surprise of many, as it seemed off that with the US$199 Amazon Kindle Fire that could already play Casual Video Games and stream movies from Amazon’s ample collection available to Amazon Prime members, this seemed like overkill. But as it turned out, US$99 is the sweet spot for such a device that’s riding a Streaming Trend as well as allowing you to play Casual Games on the couch.

Amazon aficionados agreed, snapping up the Amazon Fire TV like Wildfire in the very same month till it was out-of-stock as I’d reported in my blog article entitled “Amazon Fire TV is a bonafide hit and is out-of-stock according to Amazon - The Bamboo powered smartphone running Amazon apps cometh”.

Flappy Bird Family – Multiplayer Platform Amazon Fire TV lends to family-friendliness Addictive design

So this new Flappy Bird Family game was conceptualized to be more family-friendly and less addictive as noted in the article “Flappy Bird Returns - yet only on Amazon Fire TV”, published August 1, 2014 12:51 PM PDT by Nick Statt, CNET News. This way both parents and children can enjoy playing the game on the Amazon Fire TV when they’re bored with streaming a Movie or Series Show.

It’s even got Dong Nguyen Twitter Logo floating around in the game as octopi that are a part of the obstacle course that you have to dodge in order to get a high score. It also features a kind of split-screen mode where you can play against someone else simultaneously to see who can get the highest score.

As for that too, double-digit high scores are easier to obtain as the arcade-level difficulty has been removed thanks to the fact that you can now use a game controller instead of a smartphone’s touch screen, making the Flappy Bird character a lot easier to control. Something tells me that albeit this is a compromise to his many critics, he’s sacrificed the soul of his game at the altar of lucre.

So will Flappy Bird Family find a good home on the Amazon Fire TV? Only time will tell if Dong Nguyen’s sacrifice was indeed worth it, as by going family, he’s really doing what’s right; bringing the Family together, one Super Mario obstacle at a time!

Here’s the link:

Flappy Bird Family for Amazon Fire TV