New game 'turns sleeping into entertainment,' as players are rewarded for going to bed

Pokemon has unveiled a new sleep-inducing game. The game, named Pokemon Sleep, will follow its users’ sleeping patterns and watch to see when they wake up. It will be published in 2020. The Pokemon Company stated that this will determine the game’s gameplay.

New game ‘turns sleeping into entertainment,’ as players are rewarded for going to bed

The game aspires to achieve for sleeping what Pokemon Go did for walking. Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and chief executive of the Pokemon Company, said in a news conference launching the odd game, “It wants to convert it into a sort of entertainment.” Mr Ishihara explained, “After walking, we chose to focus on the act of sleeping.” “Everyone spends a significant portion of their time sleeping, and converting it into entertaining is our next Pokemon challenge.” The goal of this game is for players to enjoy waking up in the morning. “To create a new kind of exciting game play, Pokemon Sleep uses information such as the player’s time spent sleeping or waking up.” Nintendo also made an appearance during the event, demonstrating the Pokemon Go Plus Plus device.

It’s an improved version of the Pokemon Go Plus device from 2016, and it employs an accelerometer to track the user’s sleep and communicate the information to their smartphone through Bluetooth. “By combining these sleep tracking features with the functionality of a Pokemon Go Plus, this device can help transform both time spent walking during the day and time spent sleeping at night into something more fun and enriching for everyone,” said Kazuhiro Maruyamam, Nintendo’s head of hardware development. The Pokemon Company is collaborating with Select Button on the game’s development, though no information on how it will function have been released. During the event, the Japanese company also unveiled Pokemon Home, a cloud-based storage and trade service, a Detective Pikachu game sequel for the Nintendo Switch, and Pokemon Masters, a mobile app game.