In Monday’s Pokémon Presents livestream, the company behind the hit megafranchise announced a merger between the latest games in the series, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and the Niantic-produced mobile hit Pokémon Go. The Pokémon Company also shared a long-awaited update to its sleep-tracking app, Pokémon Sleep.
Already in Pokémon Go, players can obtain regional variants of the butterfly Pokémon Vivillon by collecting in-game postcards from other trainers around the world. Now, Pokémon Go players can send postcards of their Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games to the Nintendo Switch, which will trigger that specific variant of Vivillon. Then, on the Pokémon Go side, it will trigger Pokémon Gimmighoul to appear in its roaming form. Normally, Gimmighoul can be caught as a Pokémon living inside a treasure chest, which is also part of its body (yes, it’s weird, don’t ask), but in its roaming form, it’s a bit crazy that gray man with the gold coin. Pokémon can evolve into Ghondengo after trainers collect 999 Gimmighoul coins.
This integration is similar to the link between Pokémon Go and the Nintendo Switch games Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee. Like Gimmighoul, the only way to get a Meltan in Pokémon Go is to connect the game to your console, which triggers a mystery box event. Meltan evolves into Melmetal, a useful and powerful Pokémon for PvP battles.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet will also soon be compatible with Pokémon Home, a subscription-based mobile app that allows players to transfer Pokémon across games. Once the integration is complete, players can transfer their roaming Gimmighoul form to their Scarlet & Violet games, making it the only way to use the Pokémon in that form.
Speaking of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: yes, we now know there will be a DLC. However, the first part of the expansion content “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero” will not be available until the fall, with the second part after the winter. When Scarlet & Violet was released, riddled with glitches, we saw how bad it could be when the Pokémon staff rushed to make new games – so as far as I could tell, they could get all the time they want.
In other mobile Pokémon news, the Pokémon Company has finally shared an update about Pokémon Sleep, an app the company has been teasing since 2019.
“The idea behind Pokémon Sleep is a game that makes you excited to wake up in the morning,” said Pokémon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya. That sounds pretty dark!
The game takes place on a small island, where we meet a huge Snorlax, along with the Pokémon sleep researcher Professor Neroli (how do I get that job?). If you leave your phone on your pillow while you sleep, the game will record your sleep and analyze it – of course, we still don’t know if this data is actually accurate or useful.
Image Credits: The Pokémon Company
Your sleep can be described as dozing, snoring or dozing off, and Pokémon that sleep the same way you do (… according to this fellow sleep researcher) will flock to your Snorlax. The app will be available on iOS and Android this summer.
To unite Pokémon Go and Pokémon Sleep, Pokémon announced the Pokémon Go Plus + accessory (no, that’s not a typo, and yes, it’s pronounced “plus plus”). Like the existing Pokémon Go Plus, the gadget can spin Pokéstops and catch Pokémon for you in Pokémon Go. The new device also tracks your sleep and lets you sing lullabies with a Pikachu voice, if that’s your thing. This device, which will be available for purchase on July 14, will allow players to bring their sleep data into Pokémon Go for special bonuses.
We don’t know yet if Pokémon Sleep will be a paid app, or if it will have in-app purchases. But Pokémon Go is wildly successful, even if it’s not as culturally ubiquitous as it was in 2016. In June, the game surpassed $6 billion in all-time revenue.