Flappy Bird Creator Starts Chasing Down Clones

Nguyen Ha Dong, the author of the game Flappy Bird, at a coffee shop in Hanoi on Feb. 5, 2014. The Vietnamese developer behind the smash-hit free game Flappy Bird has pulled his creation from online stores after announcing that its runaway success had ruined his "simple life." Photographer: AFP via Getty Images

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By Mark Milian

June 5, 2014 at 5:43 AM UTC

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Flappy Bird is perhaps the most copied game of the year, and the Vietnamese creator behind the defunct mobile app is finally going after the clones.

Apple has been contacting developers of Flappy Bird lookalikes on behalf of .Gears Studio, which made the original game, saying they may be infringing on the creator’s copyright. One such e-mail sent today that was obtained by Bloomberg was received by the developer of a similar-looking game called Duck Run.