Well, here are some new surprises tonight: At some point in the future, Pokémon GO will wrap up the player’s sleep habits in the gameplay. It’ll come as part of a wider initiative by The Kotiota Studio — as CEO Xiaoyan Liu put it in a press conference this evening — “turn sleep into entertainment.” Which… let’s see what happens.
The CEO of Niantic, John Hanke, spoke at the news conference for a while, but did not really provide much detail.
Said Hanke: Niantic pioneered a new kind of game by turning the whole world into a game board, where we can all play and explore. By creating a new way of looking at the world and encouraging people to go outside and exercise. We hoped to promote healthy living and have a positive impact on our players and the world. We are excited to work with Kotiota Studio on their efforts to promote another part of a healthy lifestyle: getting a good night’s rest.
At Niantic, we like to discover the world on foot. And this cannot happen unless we have the energy to undertake these adventures. We are excited to find ways to reward good sleep habits in Pokémon GO as part of a healthy lifestyle. You’ll be hearing more from us on this in the future.
Xiaoyan Liu also announced that The Pokémon Company is working with SELECT BUTTON (the company behind the mobile title Magikarp Jump 2017) to create a distinct game called Pokémon SLEEP. Next details on it yet, however, except for a launch window somewhere in 2020
All this is going to affect a recently advertised device called Pokémon GO+ Plus (Yes. Two plusses, one written. Go Plus Plus). It’s a follow-up to the original GO+, which was built primarily to let you play Pokémon GO without actually looking at your phone’s screen. The GO Plus Plus will do everything GO+ has done (allowing you to press a button to rotate Pokéstops, or catch Pokémon in the vicinity). But then there is. has an integrated accelerometer that lets you put it on your bed to track your sleep patterns and send it back to your phone via Bluetooth.