A bunch of new Pokémon games have been revealed, alongside an app which allows you to share your collection across platforms.
Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, announced numerous titles and hardware in a packed press conference – without even touching upon the release of Sword & Shield on Nintendo Switch.
So what’s heading down the pipeline? Following the success of the movie, a sequel to Detective Pikachu is in development for Switch.
There’s no word on a release date, but the sequel has been described as a ‘conclusion’ to the story in the first game released on the Nintendo 3DS, which ended on a different cliffhanger note to the movie.
An app for Switch and smartphone devices was also announced titled Pokémon Home, which is essentially an evolution on the Pokémon Bank service.
The cloud service app allows players to manage Pokémon collections and trade across multiple devices and titles, with the service connecting to Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Let’s Go, the upcoming Pokémon Sword & Shield, and Pokémon Go.
A graphic appears to show how the service will work, with only one-way transfers allowed to Pokémon Home from all games except Sword & Shield, which has two-way transfers from Pokémon Home and back again.
The service is set to launch in early 2020, with no details on pricing or subscription plans.
A slightly more bizarre service is Pokémon Sleep, a mobile app which revolves around your sleeping habits having an effect on gameplay.
The app will utilise a new Pokémon Go accessory titled Pokémon Go Plus +, which has an embedded accelerometer to track your time spent sleeping. This information can then be sent via Bluetooth to your smartphone, with the accessory also compatible as a standard Go Plus for when you’re strolling around in the day.
In celebration of the app’s announcement, Snorlax will now be spawning in Pokémon Go until 3 June. Pokémon Sleep is set to launch in 2020, with more details to come.
The final new smartphone game is Pokémon Masters, which appears to focus around team-based battles – as you compete against notorious Pokémon trainers and gym leaders from across the series including Misty, Brock and Blue.
Pokémon Masters is slated to be released later this year, with more details arriving in June.
More information on Pokémon Sword & Shield will also arrive in a dedicated Nintendo Direct presentation on 5 June at 2pm UK time.
You can check out the full presentation below.
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