Pokémon Go To Use Sleep Data In Rewarding Good Sleeping Habits

Pokémon Go is encouraging players to live a healthy lifestyle by requiring players to get up and walk around. At some point in the near future, developer Niantic will be wrapping players’ sleeping habits into the mobile game’s gameplay, to provide incentives for other healthy lifestyle choices.

The aforementioned is going to be part of a wider initiative courtesy of The Pokémon Company. As revealed by CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara in a press conference, they want to “turn sleep into entertainment.” Of course, it is still a mystery as to how the developers will exactly do this.

Niantic CEO John Hanke also took the stage and talked about the initiative. Much like Ishihara, he also did not specify any details whatsoever. “Niantic pioneered a new kind of gaming by turning the whole world into a gameboard, where we can all play and explore. 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," Hanke said. "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."

Ishihara further revealed that The Pokémon Company has been working closely with SELECT BUTTON, the company responsible for turning the 2017 mobile game Magikarp Jump into a reality. The idea is to develop a separate title called Pokémon SLEEP. Although he was reluctant in providing significant details to the upcoming game, the executive confirmed a launch window of sometime in 2020.

All of this sleep gameplay will reportedly require a newly-announced device dubbed Pokémon Go+ Plus. It is basically a follow-up to the original Pokemon Go+, which was originally developed to let players play Pokémon Go without the need to look at a mobile device’s screen.

The upcoming device is said to do everything its predecessor is capable of, from tapping a button to spin PokéStops, to catching a nearby pocket monster. However, it will also come with a built-in accelerometer that tracks sleeping habits. Consequently, data will be transferred back to the players’ phone using Bluetooth.