Pokemon press conference: All the big announcements and Twitter reactions
Some big new things are coming for Pokemon and the internet is having a laugh.
The Pokemon Company conducted a press conference from Tokyo today, announcing a handful of upcoming products that have us looking for our pillows.
Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO of the Pokemon Company, stood behind a PokeBall-shaped podium, made a number of "business announcements" and, notably, discussed how the broadcast was in English, Japanese and Chinese -- signalling intentions to get Pokemon to a broader audience. A cavalcade of guest presenters then rolled through, offering up information on the latest products and services The Pokemon Company is offering up. It wasn't riveting, but perhaps it set us up for the huge reveal: "Pokemon Sleep."
We've listed all of the announcements below and expanded on some of the BIG announcements at the bottom of the post.
What was announced at the Pokemon press conference?
- A follow-up to Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is coming to Nintendo Switch. It'll resolve the cliffhanger ending of the 2018 3DS game and will wrap up differently to the movie that just came out.
- Shibuya PARCO is getting a Pokemon Center in Fall 2019. There will be a Mewtwo statue at the entrance.
- NetEase, a Chinese internet technology company and game publisher, announced Pokemon Quest China.
- Junichi Masuda from Game Freak announced Pokemon Home, which we discuss a little more below.
- Pokemon Sleep was announced and look, there's more information below, but we're confused.
- Kazuhiro Maruyama, device development lead at Nintendo , announced " Pokemon Go Plus Plus."
- Pokemon Go is inundated with Snorlax at the moment, in celebration of the announcements.
- DeNA is developing a smartphone game: Pokemon Masters. Sister site GameSpot has more on that.
Pokemon Home
Pokemon Home is "a place for all your Pokemon to gather" and works a little like a supercharged version of the 3DS era Pokemon Bank.. It will be a cloud-based service that links up with your smartphone and Nintendo Switch so you can grab your Pokemon and chuck them all together.
The service will work with previous titles, such as Pokemon Go and the aforementioned Pokemon Bank, as well as Switch's Let's Go titles and upcoming Pokemon Sword and Shield.
It will also allow trainers to trade Pokemon at any time, from their smartphone. Currently, Home is scheduled for an Early 2020 launch.
Pokemon Sleep: Turning sleep into entertainment
Pokemon Sleep has us scratching our heads a little but it seems to have been received with some fanfare on Twitter, at least. It utilizes your time spent sleeping and time waking up to create new kind of gameplay, apparently. It's a totally bizarre concept that ensures Pokemon will never. ever. leave. your. side.
Some of the best tweets about it have us cackling with laughter.
Pokemon Go Plus Plus
This new device can be used as a standard Pokemon Go device, like the Pokemon Go Plus. When you want to fall to sleep, you put it on your bed and it will track information about your snoozing. It has an in-built accelerometer which can be synced up with a phone for recording. Why use the myriad fitness apps when you could be training a Pikachu in your sleep?
Overall, the press conference was a little unusual in that it seemed designed as a business meeting of The Pokemon Company, though it was marketed with a little more toward the fans.
Now we rest. At least until next Tuesday, when Nintendo's Pokemon Direct will bring more news about upcoming Switch games Sword and Shield.
CNET's Sean Keane contributed to this report.