Who came up with the idea for Pokemon Sleep? Which developer, executive, or cleaner at the Nintendo offices plucked up the courage to say, “You know what team, I think we should make a game that you play in your sleep.” And why wasn’t it shot down immediately? It’s an incredibly strange premise, and the length of time it’s taken to develop is even stranger.
We heard nothing about Pokemon Sleep for nearly four years, with the game missing its original release date by three. When we got more information, it turned out that the game is a sleep tracker, and you score points based on how good your sleep is or something. As always, parents of toddlers are at a disadvantage if Pokemon Sleep esports ever becomes a thing, but I digress. There are pretty screenshots of sleepy Pokemon snuggling up alongside you, more of which can be unlocked by sleeping, and it can play Pokemon lullabies through the new Pokemon Go Plus +.
The concept may seem odd, but it’s part of a clear strategy from Pokemon. After Pokemon Smile, which I hear from fellow parents is a great way of encouraging children to brush their teeth, sleep was the next logical step. Part of me wondered if the developer was monetising the data it collected or something, selling information to Colgate and Dreams to target advertising if your brushing was subpar or mattress lumpy. But that seems a little silly, and I think the reason behind these lifestyle games is far simpler.
Pokemon wants you to be constantly reminded of Pokemon, especially if you’re a child. If Bulbasaur helps you clean your teeth, maybe you’re more likely to ask for a PokePlushie on your Christmas list. If Cyndaquil sings you to sleep every night, maybe you’ll choose to spend your pocket money on a Pokemon magazine instead of say, a TikTok dance or whatever else kids are into these days. These games are intended to infiltrate your everyday habits, and to place Pokemon into your consciousness at every possible turn. This isn’t stealing your data like social media, it’s not even subliminal advertising like Coca Cola did in the ‘50s. It’s just advertising, normalising Pokemon being a part of your everyday life.
That still doesn’t tell us why Pokemon Sleep took so long to make. If it’s just got the sleep-tracking properties of an average FitBit or phone, I don’t see why it took so long to slap some Pokemon branding on it and record a Jigglypuff jingle. This doesn’t look like a complicated game, it looks like it’s capitalising on areas where gaming isn’t currently too present, stealing market share from Apple and Google instead of Microsoft and Sony.
We won’t have long to find out, if Pokemon Go’s forthcoming events are anything to go by. Niantic’s AR game recently released its slate of July events, and there’s one in particular that seems like it’ll be a Pokemon Sleep crossover to coincide with the game’s launch.
The ‘Catching Some Z’s’ event is slated for the weekend of July 15-16, and sounds like the perfect event to correspond with Pokemon Sleep’s release. Sleep is now scheduled for launch this summer, so that tracks, and there’s a rare Snorlax in a nightcap that you can catch in Go if you buy the Go Plus + which comes with Sleep. There’s already some crossover between the two, so a weekend event in Go to celebrate and draw people’s attention to the new release seems logical.
I don’t know if I’ll play Pokemon Sleep. I basically stopped playing Go when my local community died, so the Snorlax doesn’t tempt me either. I know I’ll be terrible at the game because my sleep is appalling, and I don’t want Bulbasaur to be mad at me for something I can’t control. But with such a weird premise and after such a long development period, I can’t help but be intrigued. There’s not long to wait now, as we’ll all be able to crack the enigma that is Pokemon Sleep next month, if Pokemon Go is to be believed.