The Pokémon Company announced Pokemon Sleep, a game that's supposed to turn sleep into entertainment, in another move that absolutely no one saw coming. The app, alongside a new piece of hardware, is set to come out in 2020.
It isn't clear what Pokémon Sleep is exactly, but we should get more details later on.
The main draw of the phone app, as said by The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara at a press conference in Tokyo, is to help "players look forward to waking up every morning," he said. "It utilizes info, like time spent sleeping or what time the player wakes up, to create a new type of gameplay."
To sum it up, they want to do for sleeping what Pokemon Go did for walking.
We’re pleased to announce the development of Pokémon Sleep, a new app from @Pokemon_cojp that tracks a user’s time sleeping and brings a gameplay experience unlike any other! Several Snorlax were consulted on this, in case you were wondering. #PokemonSleep is coming in 2020. pic.twitter.com/nJ7mJY09DlMay 29, 2019
Sleep info will be gathered by the Pokemon Go Plus +, a new device similar to other Pokemon Go hardware, that you'd place on your bed. It tracks "simple info" around your sleep patterns and sends it to your smartphone via bluetooth.
Niantic CEO John Hanke said that Pokemon Go would implement features that work with Pokémon Sleep, although he didn't get specific about what that meant. In the meantime Pokémon Go players can go out and catch a sleeping Snorlax in celebration of the announcement. Ishihara confirmed that the giant Pokémon would be available at the end of the press conference, but would only be around for a limited time. Grab one while you can.
Interested in learning more about the next main games in the Pokémon series? Check out what we know about Pokemon Sword and Shield, the new Pokemon Sword and Shield, so far.
