Pokémon Press Conference Recap: Pokémon Go, Home, and Sleep
Keeping the momentum rolling after the success of Detective Pikachu, The Pokémon Company got ahead of E3 to show-off what we can expect next from the beloved franchise. With another event set for June 5th, said to focus on the upcoming Pokémon Sword & Shield, many of us weren’t sure what to expect from this conference. But leave it to The Pokémon Company to never fail in capturing our hearts.
The first order of business was addressing the electrifying success of Detective Pikachu. Hiro Matsuoka, managing director of Toho Co., Ltd, took the stage to sing the praises of our favorite caffeine addicted sleuth. Matsuoka even went as far as crediting the film as being in the ranks of many people’s favourite monster, Godzilla, in terms of box office success. An incredible feat for a film that many were skeptical about for months after its initial announcement.
The next order of business was certainly a delight to hear for fans of the movie that have yet to reach their fill of Pokémon related mysteries. Noting the cliffhanger in the original Detective Pikachu game, it was announced that a conclusion to Tim Goodman’s conundrum will be coming to Nintendo Switch. The next leg of this tale is promising an original ending from what we experienced on-screen earlier this year. At this time, no further information has been announced.
Pokémon HOME nabbed the spot as the conference’s next major announcement. Serving as the next evolution of Pokémon Bank, a cloud-based storage service for storing our adorable creatures, Pokémon HOME will allow players to seamlessly transfer their favorite Pokémon to the next generation. The image from the conference suggests that Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Let’s Go, and Pokémon Go can all upload Pokémon into the server. Once there, you’ll only be able to use them on the Pokémon Sword and Shield. Another feature of Pokémon HOME is that trainers can easily trade Pokémon around the world, thanks to the mobile app.
After dominating every waking second of summer 2016 with the release of Pokémon Go, The Pokémon Company is now targeting our dreams. With the launch of Pokémon Sleep, developers are looking to: “turn sleeping into entertainment”. And honestly who are we to tell them ‘no’? To properly train Pokémon in your sleep, you’ll need to pick up the new Pokémon Go Plus +. This new peripheral is the latest iteration of Pokémon Go Plus, and comes with the added benefit of being able to monitor your sleep patterns.
Closing out the game announcements, we were introduced to DeNA’s upcoming game, Pokémon Masters. You may recognize DeNA as being the developer behind the soon to be released Mario Kart Tour, and many of Nintendo’s other mobile games. Pokémon Masters is planned for release later this year, however, right now all we know is that it will highlight fan favorite trainers from previous mainline Pokémon titles.
What has you the most excited about Pokémon’s upcoming releases? Are you itching to get your hands on any of yesterday’s announcements, or are you holding out for more information regarding the next generation on June 5th? Be sure to let us know in the comment section below!
