Unless you've been sleeping under a rock lately, you must have heard about a phenomenon that is Flappy Bird, a silly and addictive game that set tongues wagging even before its controversial removal from the App Store last night.

A lot of people thought that Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen announcing the app's removal from the App Store was a marketing move, even after he followed through with his promise. And who can blame them?

I mean, who in their right mind would kill a golden goose that in Nguyen's own words was bringing a cool $50,000 per day from in-game advertising, right? Nguyen on his part would only say the sheer publicity from the game had “ruined his simple life” by attracting too much attention from the press and disgruntled players. 

Although some sympathized with Nguyen, others suspected Nintendo was responsible for killing Flappy Bird over certain graphics similarities with its Mario franchise. Surprisingly enough, Nintendo in a rather unusual move went on the record to specifically dispute the notion and assure Flappy Bird fans it had nothing to do with the app's removal...