"What if you could continue training your Pokémon... even in your sleep? In 2016, Pokémon GO turned the simple act of walking into entertainment, making the entire world into a game. We’re about to do it again, Trainers — this time, for sleeping."
That is what the unveiling line read for Pokemon Sleep, a new app by The Pokemon Company. We don't know a whole lot about it yet, but from what has been revealed on Twitter and at the conference yesterday, Niantic and The Pokemon Company are looking at this as some sort of a new age yogic movement. Except, spirituality is being replaced an all-new factor -- catching Pokemon.
From what we have unearthed till now, Pokemon Sleep will tap into data on your sleep cycle. It will then synchronise this in some way to a virtual bag full of Pokemon that you've collected (maybe on your journeys in Pokemon Go). Once synced, your Pokemon will grow, train and regain health to be taller, stronger, faster and sharper than ever before. In essence, what is a few hours of oblivion for you, turns into a hearty dosage of health drinks for your magical little buddies.
To do this, Niantic and The Pokemon Company will also have you (ideally) purchase a new wearable band, called Pokemon Go Plus+ (read: Go Plus Plus). Beyond the double-addition naming of it, this smart band will also use a built-in accelerometer to gauge your sleep cycle, and subsequently feed that data to both Pokemon Go and Pokemon Sleep. Subliminally, this is a way to ensure that you can never say that sleeping is such a waste of your time.
While all that is great for the ultimate Poke-geek, it seems a wee bit stretched. At the conference, Niantic CEO John Hanke said, "By creating a new way to see the world and an incentive to go outside and exercise, we hoped to encourage a healthy lifestyle and to make a positive impact on our players and on the world. We’re delighted to be working with The Pokémon Company on their efforts to encourage another part of a healthy lifestyle: getting a good night’s rest. At Niantic, we love exploring the world on foot. And that can’t happen unless we have the energy to embark on these adventures. We’re excited to find ways to reward good sleep habits in Pokémon GO as part of a healthy lifestyle."
In truth, however, walking around your neighbourhood while seeing an augmented map filled with virtual Pokemon that you can interact with is far more exciting than needing to sleep in order to have your already-collected Pokemon grow in strength. The point behind Niantic's efforts with augmented reality games is to regain the kind of viral interest that it generated globally with Pokemon Go, and going by the pitch behind Pokemon Sleep, it hardly seems likely that this will have the same impact.
Nevertheless, we would refrain from being overtly critical, seeing that very little details are available about the game at the moment. If for nothing, the game would at least deserve brownie points for attempting to make sleep a more engaging process.
Comments
0 comment