‘Flappy Bee’ App Rips Off NZ Games Developer

‘Flappy Bee’ App Rips Off NZ Games Developer

Mount Maunganui, 10th February 2014 - The crazy success of a game called 'Flappy Bird' which was #1 on the App Store and is being talked about all over the world has led to it been quickly cloned and variants put up on the App Store. New Zealand games developer Flightless became aware of one of these game clones called 'Flappy Bee' a few days ago. The game is not only trying to leverage the success of 'Flappy Bird', but is also trying to leverage the success of Flightless‘ game 'Bee Leader'. It is using copyrighted assets that have been directly stolen from 'Bee Leader', including the main app icon.

'Flappy Bird' has been removed from the App Store by its developer and consequently the #1 search result for 'Flappy Bird' on the US App Store is this cloned and ripped game 'Flappy Bee', which features Flightless’ stolen artwork and content.

Flightless Technical Director Greg Harding says, “We have submitted a content dispute with Apple but currently the offending ‘Flappy Bee’ App is #4 on the App Store charts and gathering significant ad network revenue for its rogue developer, all while using our work. It’s been a rough day.”

John O’Reilly, Flightless Creative Director adds, “We’d like to acknowledge the many emails and tweets of support from people who have seen the offending game. We’re gutted and feel powerless as a small indie games company to see our hard work taken advantage of in this way. We’re considering our legal position at the moment.”

‘Bee Leader’ for iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac OS X®, Windows™ and Windows Phone™ by Flightless was featured as the App Store‘s App of the Week in May 2013 and was nominated one of the App Store’s Best Games of 2012. The game has received critical success with three million downloads worldwide.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/beeleader/id480886220

Relevant links
Latest Article on Touch Arcade:
http://toucharcade.com/2014/02/09/flappy-bird-removal-spurs-copycats/
- 'Flappy Bird' - huge success recently, went to #1 on the App Store (and has since been removed by the developer for other reasons)
https://itunes.apple.com/app/flappy-bird/id642099621
- 'Bee Leader' - Flightless‘ game, released in May 2012 and featured by Apple several timeshttps://itunes.apple.com/app/beeleader/id480886220
=> clone+rip game 'Flappy Bee' - using copyrighted assets (including the main icon!) stolen directly from Flightless’ game 'Bee Leader'
https://itunes.apple.com/app/flappy-bee/id806127719
Web and Twitter coverage about Flightless’ assets being stolen and its affect on the App Store;
https://twitter.com/hodapp/status/432590700593438720 - shows the offending game as the top App Store search result for the clone+rip 'Flappy Bird'
http://www.tuaw.com/2014/02/07/attack-of-the-clones-the-flappy-bird-copies-have-arrived-and-b/ - TUAW coverage showing screenshots from the clone+rip 'Flappy Bee' with Flightless’ stolen artwork

About Flightless
Flightless - Creative technology, design and communication. Flightless is a boutique design and games development studio based in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. Flightless has a diverse portfolio of highly creative and award-winning work ranging from web-based projects, museum and exhibition installations, identity development, and self-published iPhone and iPad titles. Founded in 2005, Flightless started out as a multi-disciplined design studio working with high profile clients in New Zealand and offshore, and now focuses on high-end interactive work for museum installations, and games and applications for mobile.

www.flightless.co.nz

ENDS

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