News of Pokémon 'Home' & 'Sleep', Plus a Snorlax in 'Go' Is Making Pokémaniacs Very, Very Happy

Pokémon Home and Sleep were just announced by The Pokémon Company, along with an exciting new event for Pokémon GO players that allows them to catch a Snorlax for a limited time.

With all of the news dropping in a single day, it's easy to get the specifics of each separate launch twisted. Are Home and Sleep separate games? Do they offer separate experiences? Are they like Pokémon Red & Blue at all?

As it turns out, no, they're not at all, actually. In fact, they're more services than games, well, in some cases, that is. If that sounds confusing that's because it kinda is.

The Pokémon Company dropped the news at an unveiling they dubbed "a preview of the future of Pokémon" and they made one thing clear: they're taking gaming in the Pokémon world in a very new direction.

While the gameplay mechanics of traditional Pokémon games and battling/levelling up your monsters is always fun, one of the biggest joys of the game is the completionist aspect of it. "Gotta catch 'em all" is a great slogan because there are fewer things more satisfying than looking at a jam-packed Pokédex filled with all of the monsters the games have to offer.

The problem is, showcasing those Pokémon all in one place can be kind of tough, as they exist in different games that span different consoles. If only there was a straightforward, modern, cloud-based solution that let you admire and show off your captured Pokémon in one place!

That's where Pokémon Home comes in.

The iOS and Android application is slated for a 2020 release and will support a bunch of more-recently released Pokémon games, like GO and Let's GO. The much-anticipated Sword and Shield titles will be supported by Home as well, along with the 3DS' cloud platform, Pokémon Bank.

Another cool feature of the service is that you won't just get to manage the Pokémon you've captured, but you'll get to trade them with other users, further bolstering your Pokédex and getting you that much closer to absolute Pokémon mastery.

The enemy of any passionate hobby is sleep. I wish I could banter with my friends all day or write a bunch of funny nonsense, but, annoyingly, we need to sleep or else our brains don't function or whatever. 

Thankfully, the Pokémon Company has decided to create a game that makes sleep much less of a waste of time by turning it into a key aspect of gameplay.

While details about exactly how IRL sleep affects gameplay are scarce, Nintendo's reportedly working with The Pokémon Company on developing a sleep tracking device named the Pokémon Go Plus +. This new device will sync up with your Pokémon Go mobile game and give users new updates and features that are all centered around and affected by sleep times.

So if you find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning and you love Pokémon, now you've got a reason to get up and face the day. Who knows? There might be some cool digital swag in it for you.

If you're one of the many people scrambling around their neighborhoods in search of rare Pokémon on their mobile phone and you've yet to capture a Snorlax, then you're in luck.

The corpulent and lethargic Pokémon can be captured from now until June 3rd as there's a high chance he'll pop up in your game. As always, he picks pretty much the worst spot in the world to sleep.

Users have been screenshotting their Snorlax encounters. The big blue boy is sleeping on buses, on church steps, in doctor's offices, in the middle of the road and on train tracks.

What a jerk.

In other Pokémon news, the Detective Pikachu game is being ported to the Switch from the Nintendo 3DS. The newest iteration is supposed to come with an alternate ending on the Switch, but no other details were revealed about the upcoming title.

So there you have it Pokémaniacs. Are you scrambling outside right now trying to catch a Snorlax? Or are you counting down the days when you can show off your sweet Pokémon collection in Pokémon Home?