Only few ( almost none ) developers turn down the spot of #1 App on App-Store by pulling down their App from App Store and Play Store when the returns are almost as big as $50,000/day.
Unlike most developers Dong Nguygen did what no other developer would dare to do for their suddenly-famous App. To remove it from the App Store. Yes, we are talking about that developer who created Flappy Bird a simple and very addictive game which was raking its creator hundreds of thousands of dollars just from the in-game ads. 
The developer was well known ony and only by his twitter account and refused to speak to the press about why the game was removed or anything about his game. But the developer agreed to talk to Rolling Stone for their exclusive story, the whole story about him and Flappy Bird for the first time.
The developer as we knew was a small developer from Vietnam created the game Flappy Bird and published it in the App store on 24th May 2013 but not until December 2013 that the app suddenly got the recognition and sudden spike of downloads. But soon within 2 months of tremendous success and 50 million downloads later the App was removed from App Store and Play Store. Flappy Bird lived on the App Store for 261 days and on mere 16 days on Google Play Store before it was removed by the developer due the sense of ethics and responsibility he felt towards the society and his users.
Despite various attempts by journalists and bloggers, the developer kept mom and went in hiding and was not ready to speak to anyone about this. His twitter account became the only source of information about him and his game. Which was at times brutal and concise. All this has also encouraged a Techcrunch writer to crowfund a trip to Vietnam to find more about this developer and interview him. The TC writer, Kim-Mai Cutler had started a crowdtilt campaign to back his journey to Vietnam and get the story. The campaign was oversubscribed in few hours with more than $5,000 in backing. You can read about the campaign and its progress here.
You can read the complete article linked below or read these highlights from the article;
With the international press and local paparazzi searching for him, Nguyen has been in hiding – fleeing his parents’ house to stay at a friend’s apartment, where he now remains.
By February, it was topping the charts in more than 100 countries and had been downloaded more than 50 million times. Nguyen was earning an estimated $50,000 a day. Not even Mark Zuckerberg became rich so fast.
Angry Birds was too busy, he thought. “I don’t like the graphics,” he says. “It looked too crowded.” Nguyen wanted to make games for people like himself: busy, harried, always on the move. “I pictured how people play,” he says, as he taps his iPhone and reaches his other hand in the air. “One hand holding the train strap.” He’d make a game for them.
The first mention of the game on Twitter didn’t come until five months later, on November 4th, when someone posted a three-word review. “Fuck Flappy Bird,” it read.
With no promotion, no plan, no logic, on January 17th, Flappy Bird hit Number One. A week or two later, it topped the Google Play store, too.
Even with Apple and Google’s 30 percent take, Nguyen estimated he was clearing $50,000 a day.
He hands me his iPhone so that I can scroll through some messages he’s saved. One is from a woman chastising him for “distracting the children of the world.” Another laments that “13 kids at my school broke their phones because of your game, and they still play it cause it’s addicting like crack.” Nguyen tells me of e-mails from workers who had lost their jobs, a mother who had stopped talking to her kids. “At first I thought they were just joking,” he says, “but I realize they really hurt themselves.”
John Romero, co-creator of the game Doom, says Flappy Bird is “a reaction against prevailing design the way grunge was a reaction to metal.” The godfather of gaming, Bushnell, compares it to his own hit, Pong. “Simple games are more satisfying,” he says.
As for Nguyen, the millions of people who downloaded Flappy Bird are still generating tens of thousands of dollars for him. He’s finally quit his job and says he’s thinking of buying a Mini Cooper and an apartment. He just got his first passport.
As soon as Flappy Bird was removed, there has been ridiculous rumours about his suicide, death threats and Nintendo suing him. And his refusal to speak fueled the speculations even more. People started guessing various reasons why the game was removed, some even went that far saying he is a sell out and sold the game to someone to make more cash. All happened was he removed it willingly to adhere to his ethics and he felt responsible for all the problems people faced with the game. The addiction and frustration because of this game was one of the reasons.
Talking about the future of Flappy Bird, he is turning down all the offers he received to purchase the game and when asked if the App will be added back to App Store or not? He simply said, “I’m considering it,” but isn’t working on a new version and if he ever released it again, it will come with a warning, “Please take a break”.
You can read the complete article, The Flight of the Birdman on Rolling Stone or simply pick it up on March 27th 2014 when it hits the newsstands.For more details on the staggering birth-to-death of Flappy Bird check out this infographic.
