Pokémon GO Expansion: Pokémon Sleep Development Moves to Pokémon Works

Pokemon Sleep Development Shifts to New Pokemon Subsidiary

Pokémon Sleep Development Shifts to New Pokémon SubsidiaryFrom SELECT BUTTON to Pokémon Works

In March of this year, The Pokemon Corporation established a new subsidiary, Pokemon Works, which sparked speculations about its future projects. Eight months later, it appears that Pokemon Works will take over the development and future updates of Pokemon Sleep from mobile game developer SELECT BUTTON, Inc..

"Until now, the development and operation of Pokemon Sleep has been handled by two companies, SELECT BUTTON, Inc. and The Pokemon Corporation, Ltd.," the developers announced through the game app, translated via machine translation. "However, the development and operation of Pokemon Sleep will gradually transition from SELECT BUTTON to Pokemon Works."

This news was announced in a general notice on the Japanese Pokemon Sleep app. It remains unclear how this change will impact the global version of the game, as the news is not currently visible within the app’s News section.

Not much is known about Pokémon Works and their current projects. However, according to a greeting from Representative Director Takuya Iwasaki on their website, the company is "a development team born from two companies, The Pokémon Company and Iruka Co., Ltd."

Additionally, Pokémon Works reportedly shares a location in Shinjuku, Tokyo with ILCA, the game development studio behind the 2021 Pokémon remakes, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and a co-developer of the Pokémon HOME service. Iwasaki mentioned in his greeting that Pokémon Works also contributed to the development of Pokémon HOME.

While their past involvement with Pokémon is limited to these projects, the company promises to "create an experience that makes Pokémon more real... so that everyone can enjoy meeting and adventuring with Pokémon." How they plan to implement this vision in Pokémon Sleep remains to be seen.