What is Pokémon Sleep and will it ever get a release date?
The mysterious mobile game may still be in production after an initial 2020 Pokémon Sleep release date
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Pokémon Go dataminers have found that Pokémon Sleep may still be on the horizon, and closer than we thought, after The Pokémon Company went silent on the mobile game.
The Pokémon Company originally announced Pokémon Sleep in May 2019, at the same time as Pokémon Masters and Pokémon Home, both of which are now available and have been for some time. The original announcement claimed that the mobile game would be released in 2020, and not only did that not happen, but The Pokémon Company have not spoken of the game since.
So what is Pokémon Sleep?
The yet-to-be-released game came about thanks to Pokémon Go’s successful link between mobile gaming and getting people out and about. Pokémon Sleep then continues that journey with your Pokémon when you go to sleep at night, with the app tracking your sleep patterns, much like Pokémon Go tracks your walking.
Sleep tracking apps have been around for some time, offering people a chance to assess how long they sleep for, how often they wake and even the quality of sleep. The new Pokémon mobile game would combine this technology with similar gameplay to that of Pokémon Go, though – due to the radio silence regarding Pokémon Sleep – we don’t yet know what that gameplay would entail.
The only other thing we do know about Pokémon Sleep from the original announcement is that there was also a new Pokémon GO Plus device in the making, which would aid in sleep tracking and feed data back to your mobile device. The Pokémon GO Plus+ has also still not been released, and there is little information about it, presumably due to the delay with the accompanying app. The existing GO Plus device tracks your walking, as well as having the ability to catch Pokémon and activate Pokéstops, while you are not actively playing Pokémon Go.
Could Pokémon Sleep be coming in 2022?
Despite no official word on whether the next Pokémon app is still on its way, Pokémon Go dataminers have found information suggesting that the game could still be in the works. Renowned dataminers @Pokeminers posted to Twitter on January 4th, 2022, that they had found several pieces of code suggesting links between Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sleep, and also a potential placeholder name for the Pokémon GO Plus+.
While this is still just speculation, we can certainly hope that this data reveals a 2022 release for Pokémon Sleep, or at least some more official information in the coming months. As ever, we’ll keep you updated as soon as anything else is revealed!
In the meantime, make sure you know what’s coming in Pokémon Go with our guide to the Season of Heritage.
