The Pokémon Company held a press conference in Japan yesterday that promised to reveal some new and upcoming projects, and one of those is a new mobile app/game called Pokémon Sleep, which is designed to reward players for being like Snorlax and getting a good night’s rest.
Pokémon Sleep will be a standalone game that can be downloaded onto mobile devices but will in some way work in partnership with Pokémon GO. The Pokémon Company is also working with Nintendo to develop a new piece of hardware that will seemingly be required to take advantage of this new offering called the Pokémon GO Plus+.
Not unlike the original Pokémon GO Plus hardware, the Pokémon GO Plus+ will connect to mobile devices via Bluetooth connection and will track a user’s sleep time with the help of the embedded accelerometer. Once that data is tracked and compiled it can then be transferred to the Pokémon Sleep game through the Bluetooth connection when the user wakes up and in turn reward the user with an enhanced gameplay experience.
Of note, the Pokémon GO Plus+ will also work to store a Pokémon inside of it just like the original Pokéball Plus, but its primary function is to record simple sleep data for use with Pokémon Sleep or to act as a Pokémon GO Plus device for notifying users of nearby Pokéstops.
Past the original reveal of the new game and companion hardware Nintendo and the Pokémon Company didn’t reveal much information about how players will be rewarded for sleep time, but it did mention that Pokémon Sleep and the new Pokémon GO Plus+ will be launching sometime in 2020.
The goal here is to improve the quality of life for Pokémon fans. While getting exercise and staying active and social can all be part of living a healthy lifestyle, getting proper sleep can be just as important if not more important as it sets you up for the following day, and not getting enough rest can cause all sorts of other issues due to not having enough energy.
The Pokémon Company and Nintendo aim to “turn sleep into entertainment” just as they did with walking, and for die hard Pokémon GO fans it’s likely that the two companies will accomplish the goal they have set out to achieve. There’s even a chance Pokémon Sleep and the new Pokémon GO Plus+ will get players who have stopped playing Pokémon GO as often excited again.
The Pokémon Company says that Pokémon Sleep will introduce a gameplay experience that is unlike anything players are accustomed to, which seems obvious given that there aren’t many if any games which reward you for better sleep and longer sleep times, but it’s still unclear exactly how the app will enhance the experience for players.
Beyond the gaming experience though, Pokémon Sleep is an interesting direction to take that sets out to enrich people lives in a new way. Games can be a great outlet for people to help reduce stress, improve hand-eye coordination, and even train your brain through the use of puzzles and challenging strategies that players need to beat.
Attempting to entice players to get better rest though is something that really doesn’t seem to have been done before and if any game/entertainment companies should be able to convince people that better sleep is in their best interest, it’s the Pokémon Company and Nintendo.