Pokemon Sleep patent reignites fan enthusiasm after three years
A new patent has been discovered for the seemingly abandoned Pokemon Sleep application reigniting excitement among trainers for the innovative monster-collecting app.
May 28, 2019, was a big day for The Pokemon Company International. Four new games/applications were announced, including Pokemon HOME, Pokemon Masters, and the to-be-released Detective Pikachu for the Nintendo Switch.
The fourth app is one that also hasn’t been released, but it’s plagued players’ dreams since its announcement. Pokemon Sleep, an app that boasts the ability to train Pokemon while you sleep, was slated to release in 2020… but never did.
In fact, TPCi hasn’t commented on Pokemon Sleep since the announcement, leaving many to believe the project was scrapped or abandoned. But a newly discovered patent may disprove doubters.
Pokemon Sleep patent discovered
The patent was discovered by Reddit user milotic03, who was visiting the pokemonsleep.com website expecting to see the sleeping Snorlax from 2019. Instead, they were redirected to a patent published in November 2022 that belonged to The Pokemon Company.
The URL has since been fixed, and pokemonsleep.com takes you to the landing page of the official Pokemon website. However, milotic03 uploaded the patent that detailed features reminiscent of what TPCi promised four years ago.
“A user breeds a virtual life form by practicing good sleep habits and stays motivated toward practicing good sleep habits while enjoying breeding the virtual life form,” the patent’s abstract read. While the document did not mention Pokemon or Pokemon Sleep by name, a few diagrams featured the franchise’s mascot, Pikachu.
Since this is the first bit of hard evidence of the existence of the continued development of Pokemon Sleep, fans are very excited. While others are skeptical of the patent’s validity.
A thread on r/PokeLeaks is filled with users debating whether the patent is real. Some users claim that the pokemonsleep.com domain is owned by someone outside of The Pokemon Company. Others claim the URL continued to change destinations, leading to a YouTube channel and a Twitter post at one point.
But, there are still those holding out hope that the patent is real and that an announcement will be made on February 27, 2023.
That being said, if the patent is fake, the creator seemingly put in a lot of effort to fabricate it. Regardless, we won’t know the actual status of Pokemon Sleep until we hear from TCPi.
