Pokémon press conference reveals new games and apps

The Pokémon Company held a press conference last night, announcing many new projects in the Pokémon franchise! The full video can be seen below. First up, TPC CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara talked about the success of the Detective Pikachu movie, then announced that a sequel to the 3DS game is in development for the Nintendo Switch.

Following that, Ishihara talked about the Pokémon Quest game that came out last year, and announced it will soon be available in China with an additional player-vs-player battle mode. No word on whether these enhancements will come to the existing game in other languages.

Next, game director Junichi Masuda came on stage to announce a new app for Switch and smartphones - Pokémon Home. It's billed as a place where all Pokémon can gather. Essentially it is a replacement for Pokémon Bank that works with multiple games: Pokémon GO/Let's Go/Bank transfer one way to Pokémon Home; while the upcoming games Pokémon Sword/Shield can transfer Pokémon to and from Pokémon Home (see diagram below). It also has a trading feature like the core games. It will be available in early 2020.

Then a brand new concept was announced - Pokémon Sleep. TPC stated that in the same way Pokémon GO got players outside and active, they wanted to help them get a good night's sleep. A new device named Pokémon Go Plus+, that looks similar to the Go Plus, can be used to track sleep patterns to ensure a good night's sleep. It's similar to existing sleep apps, however, the Pokémon version includes some gamification features and will connect with Pokémon GO.

It will be available sometime in 2020. To celebrate the news, a new Sleeping Snorlax was released in Pokémon GO. This is a special encounter where the first two Poké Balls thrown at it don't work (don't worry, you don't lose them) and it then wakes up.

Finally, another new game was announced - Pokémon Masters for smartphones. Few details were given but there was some short gameplay showing battles against many trainers from the Pokémon games, past and present. The game is scheduled to release in 2019; more information will be revealed in June.

In addition, they also mentioned a new Pokémon Center shop to be opened in Shibuya, Japan, and a new line of Pokémon shirts featuring the original 151 Pokémon.

Full video of the press conference: