While this year's Pokemon Presents event had quite a few announcements to show off, the new information regarding Pokemon Sleep has made some gamers wary of how the adorable mobile app might use users' collected sleep data. Pokemon Sleep will be playable simply by sleeping, with players able to rack up a score depending on how many hours of sleep they get just by placing their smartphone at their bedside every night.
Pokemon Sleep was first announced as far back as 2019, and while the app was planned to release just a year later, it seemingly ended up being postponed without The Pokemon Company providing any alternative release date. This led most fans to believe that the project was outright canceled, but this year's Pokemon Presents event proved that this is not the case. A new live-action trailer for the app was revealed to the surprise of many Pokemon fans, which explained that the app will encourage players to achieve a good night's sleep while also allowing them to discover which Pokemon share the same sleeping patterns as them.
The game will quite fittingly feature Snorlax as its mascot Pokemon, and though the game will offer several additional features through the use of the Pokemon GO Plus+ peripheral device, some players are wary about how the fundamental mechanics of the app will record and potentially distribute users' sleep data. Though the subject has already been discussed fairly extensively across social media, one Pokemon fan known as tropicalhypebeast on Reddit made a meme comparing the app's collection of user data to more notorious examples such as Facebook or Google. As it was explained during the Pokemon Presents conference, the app will classify a user's sleep style as either 'dozing', 'snoozing', or 'slumbering' over the course of each night, presumably based on a user's recorded sleeping habits in addition to the time spent sleeping. To see the post on Reddit, click here.
The app's introduction trailer on the official Pokemon YouTube channel also showed that it will measure, record, and analyze a user's sleep data through the night, providing sleep graphs that include details such as how long it took for the user to fall asleep. Similar controversies have surrounded Pokemon GO in the past as well due to the game's tracking of players' personal and location data, and while Pokemon Sleep is from a different developer, concerns remain over how collected sleep data may be used.
Though there were a few announcements from The Pokemon Company during their presentation this year, many Pokemon fans have been disappointed with this Pokemon Presents due to many of the announcements being related exclusively to the series' mobile spin-off games. Though the reveal of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's DLC was significant, the lack of an announcement regarding older Pokemon games being brought to the Nintendo Switch Online service has been greatly concerning for fans.
Pokemon Sleep will launch in Summer 2023 for iOS and Android mobile devices.