Written by: Carter Allen
High Demand for Flappy Bird
All it took was a
few weeks for the mobile game ‘Flappy Bird’ to take over the app stores on
almost all devices. This free and addictive game involves a bird that the
player controls and makes fly through metal pipes that serve as difficult
obstacles. The frustrating and everlasting game took over the app market place
in what seemed over night. The rapid rise in popularity caused a global bandwagon effect and the demand for the game skyrocketed.
However, the rapid rise was accompanied by an equally unanticipated fall when
the creator, Dong Nguyen, took the game down in early February of this year.
Nguyen shut the
game down simply due to its addictive nature along with the stress he was
experiencing; but was the opportunity
cost of deleting the app to save stress worth losing all the money made
each day from advertising? Nguyen believes it was, as he announced to the
public, “it is an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. The game
is gone forever” (Shoichet). What was a shock to many were the negative externalities the difficulty
the game caused. From time lost to fights with family and friends even to
“marriages ended” (Shoichet) there were endless amounts of complaints. Perhaps
the deletion of this game has brought these people peace, but many are outraged
as they can no longer participate in the latest fad. The app store does still
provide many available substitutes,
but in most cases consumer preference
was too high for this game to be replaced.
With Flappy Bird being
removed from the market, the market
responded with an even greater demand
for this private good. The consumers
who had already downloaded the game before its removal were able to keep it on
their mobile devices, but as of now the game is not downloadable. In turn, this
has increased the value of smartphones and other devices with Flappy Bird
installed on their hard drive. As you can see in the visual below, in some
cases on eBay the value of a phone with the game installed has more than
tripled its value. Select Samsung Galaxy 4 and iPod devices have reached the
one thousand dollar mark.
Some believed that
Nguyen should continue the game, but set in a dollar fee to it. At its best, I
believe this game was rather inelastic;
it was so exceptionally popular and addicting that the dollar fee would have
had little influence on the number of downloads. In a particular two-week time
span Flappy Bird was downloaded over fifty million times (“Game Over”). The
amount of revenue Nguyen could have
made off this would have been substantial along with the money made off of
advertisements.
At its peak,
Flappy Bird was making Nguyen over $50,000 simply in advertisements each day. For a game he
created in “two to three days” (Shoichet) this marginal benefit of money made off advertising far outweighs the marginal cost of making it. This game
was a great achievement and asset of Nguyen’s and there has even been talk of
him releasing it back to the public. Overall, his sudden stop of supply
stunned the market and it will be
interesting to watch if the global phenomenon makes a second appearance in app
stores everywhere.
This YouTube video serves as a
great overview of the economics of Flappy Bird:
Works Cited
“Game Over.” The
Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2014. Web. 17 March. 2014.
Norman, Alex. “The Curious Case of Disappearing Flappy Birds.”
Medill Reports Chicago. Medill
Reports – Chicago, Northwestern University, 2001-2014. Web. 17 March. 2014.
Phillips, Jack. “Flappy Bird: Developer Dong Nguyen Mulling
Bringing Addicting Game Back.” The Epoch
Times. Epoch Times, 2000-2014. Web. 17 March. 2014.
Shoichet, Catherine E. “Developer yanks ‘Flappy Bird’ after
game soars to success.” CNN. Cable
News Network, 2014. Web. 17 March. 2014.
“28 Days of Fame: The Strange, True Story of ‘Flappy Bird’.” Mashable. Mashable, 2014. Web. 17 March.
2014.
I knew that flappy bird was a popular and addicting app but I never thought it would lead to people getting so addicted that it led to them getting divorced. After reading that some phones with the app on it have hit the one thousand dollar mark makes me wish that I never deleted the app off my phone. We may never know Doug may end up putting the up back up on the app store or someone else might make an even better version of flappy bird do to how easy a game like that would be to make if you knew how to program on a computer.
ReplyDeleteThis was such an interesting topic to choose. It's hard to believe that something as simple as an app can have such a drastic impact on our economy. I can't believe that some people are willing to pay a thousand dollars for a phone with the app on it. I got my iPhone for free and therefore could make a $1,000 profit if I were to sell it. Already there have been so many knock off apps on the app store attempting to meet nearly the popularity flappy bird has. It was also interesting that the creator believes that the opportunity cost of deleting the app was greater than keeping it in the app store especially with the $50,000 profit he was making each day just from advertisements.
ReplyDeleteFlappy Bird had a ridiculous effect on everybody. There was one kid who killed his brother who got a higher score than him, which is pretty extreme. However, I think that taking the game down is a smart move on his part. By taking the game down when it was at its most popular, he makes the game even more appealing to everybody, because now they can't have what they want. I think that he'll re-release the game, and that it will be even more popular, since people who didn't play it in the first place will rush to download it and try it out.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you Greg. I also think it was smart to take down the game. The negative externalities of this app were too extreme. People were criticizing Nguyen’s choice to remove the game from the app store because of all the money he was making, but if he made $50,000 a day and let’s say the game was up for 2 weeks, that would mean he made $700,000 which is astronomical. Greg, you mentioned that a second release of the game would be a good idea and I agree. The demand would shoot up and thus making Nguyen even more money.
DeleteCarter, I love that you wrote about such a popular topic at the moment! It makes complete sense that the demand for the game would be higher since the game was officially taken off of itunes. It can’t be bought anywhere unless it is already installed on the device, and there are very few of those left. People are paying crazy amounts just to own a device with this game on it. It is crazy to think that this silly little game has caused so much trouble. The main reason it was taken off the market in the first place was because of murders and marriage breakups that it had caused. This game has created overwhelming amounts of difficulty for the market and for the people. I think that it is potentially a good thing that this game stays off the market. Great post!
ReplyDeleteIn my personal opinion i feel the opportunistic cost greatly out weighed the problems he encountered from stress and etc. Not only would keeping this game up would have been beneficial for him money wise, but also towards our economy. This is simply because all the money that could have been made from simple advertising he made on a daily basis and if he happened to put a price tag on the game more money than what he already had would've sky rocketed our economy. So many people play this game merely because of the bandwagon effect Carter mentioned meaning more and more money.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it was the right thing to do to take down the game. We have no idea what the creator was going through at the time of taking down the games. It seems like the effects it was having on society were pretty intense as well even if we didn't see that in our own backyard. I think he was probably dealing with things like death threats and I don't think any amount of money can really replace the fear of being killed over a harmless game. He probably already made so much money that taking down the game wouldn't make much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been hard to live with the effects of such a simple game. The psychology behind the effects of people playing the game were extraordinary and clearly provided that reason to pull the game. With making 50K$ a day, to nothing must have taken a lot to do. What surprised me is that people deleted the game, but still want it. The prices that skyrocket when a device just had the game still on it, even with games that are exactly the same, amazes me. A 100$ ipod being worth over 1,000$ seems such a stretch, but the demand seems to be a lot higher than it was before.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I think Nguyens choice to shut down flappy bird is rather stupid. Anyone that can get so involved in a game to a point where it ruins marriages or causes danger is clearly not a stable person and not everyone should be punished for it. The marginal benefit without a doubt outweighed all the cons, 50K a day is more than what a lot of people make in a year. This man created an extremely popular game, and had success that many strive for. The inelasticity of the game should be proof enough for him to put it back on the market, because whether it can be "destructive" to peoples lives or not, he has made a product that people will try to get - whether it is available on the market or not.
ReplyDeleteFrom my standpoint, I heard about the Flappy Bird's negative externalities from my friends who had already downloaded the app which made me decide not to download it while it was on the market. I wanted to save myself from getting addicted to something that was stressful and ultimately a waste of time. I may have not been a consumer of Nguyen's product, but many were negatively affected by Flappy bird. I support the decision of taking it off of the market, and to be honest that may have been a very smart move financially. Although he claims to have taken it off the app store to give people peace, I believe it could be a stunt just to make even more money off of his highly demanded product.
ReplyDeleteMy perspective on this game is that it was dumb and pointless. I downloaded the game for about an hour and then deleted it because of how pointless it was. The game, to me, was one of the most pointless things to ever be made because seeing that it was free, he didn't make much of any money. Only money he made was from adds and that doesn't help pay the bills everyday.
ReplyDeleteCarter, I think that your article was really good and it was very interesting to see how many people reallly downloaded this game in such a small time span. He easily could have made so much money in with the marginal cost of adding even a dollar to the dowload, even 50 cents because many would think that it would be a deal seeing most apps are 1-5 dollars. It is clearly to see how much the demand is of this game because I even heard about how the marriages ending over the game and now all the supstitues they have on the game like flappy boy..? I think is the name of the substitue game. But, I totally agree with you in saying that he should have put a little money on it and could have had a hube benefit from a game he made in several days. Overall good job on your article!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea flappy birds was so popular. I knew they took that game off of the market, but had no idea that it was because it was “too addictive.’ I’ve heard every other reason, but not that it was too addictive. I personally do not like the game flappy birds, and get too frustrated to enjoy this “addictive” game. This game must be truly inelastic when the substitutes available are less then the actual game. Yet people were still willing to buy the actual game, whether then the substitutes.
ReplyDeleteIt's extremely ridiculous that devices with the game are selling for so much; why would somebody pay extra for a rudimentary game with so many substitutes available in the market? To me, games like these are an inelastic good. I wouldn't bend over backwards to get the game regardless of price. I play a free alternative called Bird Jesus on my smartphone.
ReplyDeleteOur society has become so accustom to new technologies developed every day. Flappy Bird is a great example of this immediate demand in such a game that made so much popularity on social networks. Flappy Bird being is also a great example of how a free game can make so much money just through advertisement. Now word spreads so fast now that products, other than Flappy Bird, generally create an essential public need for new technology. For example, when the Xbox 360 came out the starting price was $300 to $400, when now you can buy it brand new for $150 to $200. Price is decreasing as demand for another product increases. This is defined by the law of demand and can relate to what is happening with Flappy Bird. Now people are willing to pay for phones with Flappy Bird on it because it is no longer on the app store.
ReplyDeleteWow! This is crazy. I previously knew that Flappy Bird was taken out of the ap store however I did not know that people were actually selling their phones with the game on it, and none the less that having Flappy Bird on your phone made your phone more valuable. In addition, to your point about releasing the game back into to the markets, Flappy Bird is in high Demand and there is a lot of money to be made off it. Many game makers have tried to replicate Flappy Bird or create some sort of knock off version, for example Iron Pants, Splashy Fish, and so on, however none of those knock off games have reached the level of popularity Flappy Bird did. I would not be surprised if Nguyen were to re-release the game in the App. store or if some investor were to pick it up.
ReplyDeleteWhen one talks about the game flappy bird you think automatically an addicting game. And you first hand understand that it was. I knew when reading that the game was taken off because the demand for it become too much and the person who created it didn’t want to have it anymore but I didn’t know because it was “too addictive” for anyone to play it anymore. A simple game like this shouldn't have become such a problem like it did. Also it was found that there were people say watch out if you download flappy bird you will get addicted, but no one really cared all we knew was that it was a game that would test you and not that it would become so addictive.
ReplyDelete