Apple & Google Begin Rejecting Games With “Flappy” In The Title

The Flappy Bird phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down, despite the fact that the original title was yanked out of the App Store by creator Dong Nguyen, whose newfound fame apparently became too overwhelming. But though “Flappy Bird” itself may be gone, the App Store’s top charts today are filled with clones that mimic the addicting, frustrating game that became this year’s viral hit.

However, that may not be the case for long. Word has it that both Apple and Google are now rejecting games that have the word “flappy” in their title.

According to Vancouver-based game designer Ken Carpenter of Mind Juice Media, Apple rejected an app of his called “Flappy Dragon” from the App Store. Apple told him “we found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app,” says Carpenter.

Clearly, the only app “Flappy Dragon” would be leveraging is “Flappy Bird” – which, to be clear, is technically no longer present in the App Store.

This is just not my fucking week: Rejected. “We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app.” Which app? FB doesn’t exist!?!?!

— Ken Carpenter (@MindJuiceMedia) February 15, 2014

Carpenter isn’t the only game developer affected by the policy shift, it seems. A tweet from Kuyi Mobile indicates that a small handful of developers attempting to launch their own “Flappy” clones have also been rejected for the same reason:

@madgarden @wtrebella @kylnew @MindJuiceMedia I think you should resubmit. Besides Ken, I know 3 other devs who just got rejected. :S

— Kuyi Mobile (@kuyimobile) February 15, 2014

This is somewhat odd, given that there are already several similarly named games on the market, including “Flappy Bee,” “Flappy Plane,” “Flappy Super Hero,” “Flappy Flyer,” and even “Flappy Bird Flyer,” Carpenter points out. Plus, there are clones that don’t include “Flappy” in the title, like “Splashy Fish” and “Ironpants” – #1 and #2 in the App Store’s top charts, at present. Meanwhile, others that include “Flappy,” but don’t lead with it, are also doing well: spot #3 is “City Bird – Flappy Flyer” and #7 is “Fly Birdie – Flappy Bird Flyer.”

In other words, the App Store’s top charts are being absolutely decimated by “Flappy Bird” clones. And users are still eating them up en masse.

But perhaps enough is enough? Apple may not want the App Store to be overrun with these spinoffs, especially because their proliferation is likely causing consumer confusion. The “Flappy Bird” craze reached mainstream media, which means everyday users who may not following every turning point in this ongoing saga are just hitting up the App Store and searching for a download.

Unfortunately, if Apple was trying to prevent these “Flappy Birds” clones from taking over the top ranks in the App Store, they’re too late. Now the new rejections have the potential of being seen as unfair since there are those whose “Flappy” knockoffs are still live and well-ranked…and raking in plenty of extra cash, too. The fair thing to do is force everyone to rename their “flappy” games, and/or pull “flappy” from their keywords.

Also of note, around the same time that developers were discussing the “Flappy” rejections on Twitter, movement in Apple’s Top Charts ground to a halt. Below is a chart that shows the average number of changes in the iOS Top Charts provided by MobileDevHQ. You can see it fell of a cliff, meaning the Top Charts were effectively “frozen” as of 2/14.

appstore-frozen-2-14-14

The charts soon returned to normal, which MobileDevHQ says makes it seem more like a transient error on Apple’s end, as opposed to an algorithm change.

Google Rejects “Flappy,” Too

Apple isn’t alone in deciding to bounce the “Flappy Bird” clones from the app store, however. Both Kuyi Mobile and Happy Mage Games also stated that Google is rejecting app submissions that use “Flappy” in the title, too.

Says Carpenter, “Yeah, I was rejected from Google Play, too.”

Screen Shot 2014-02-15 at 4.37.49 PM