Flappy Bird creator receives death threats

The Vietnamese creator of Flappy Bird has been the victim of a number of death threats since pulling the popular game from app stores yesterday.

Over the weekend, in response to the close scrutiny of his game, Dong Nguyen tweeted "I cannot take this anymore", and said he would be taking the game offline.

Following the announcement, the developer was the subject of a number of death threats and abuse through Twitter, as spotted by Eli Langer, with users saying he should "kill himself" or they will murder him.

One person tweeted: "F**k you asshole, I’ll f**king kill you if I have to. Put back Flappy Bird on the market or I’m afraid I’ll have to meet you."

Another tweeted: "You best not be deleting Flappy Bird because I will murder you if u do". Another: "You’re a f**king pussy!!! And this game sucks anyway. But you’re still a pussy. Kill yourself."

While many of the tweets, which include suicide threats and one woman putting a gun to her mouth, may be in jest, it is another example of developers receiving abuse due to a game.

Last year, Fez creator Phil Fish declared he would be leaving the game industry following a tirade of abuse, having oft been at the centre of controversy in the media.

Call of Duty developer David Vonderhaar was also the subject of a tirade of abuse last year over Treyarch’s decision to slightly lower the rate of fire of a sniper rifle.

Speaking to Eurogamer last August, Bioshock creator Ken Levine said he knew some developers that had walked away from the industry because "it’s just not worth the trouble any more".

“Especially if you’ve got families and got lives. Everybody’s entitled to do what they want to do, but just like the developer at some point is entitled to say, you know what? It just isn’t worth it for me any more."