You’re probably too busy playing Pokemon GO to know anything about Pokemon GO Plus, but the upcoming accessory has suffered a delay today.
Nintendo has taken to Twitter to confirm that the Poke Ball shaped device, which was meant to be launching at the end of this month, would now be arriving sometime in September. The message was sent out via both American and European accounts. The company didn’t give a reason for the delay, though we don’t doubt that the unprecedented demand for Niantic’s augmented reality smartphone game has led the company to hold off on the Plus launch until it can manufacture more units.
But what does Pokemon GO Plus actually do? Essentially, it’s a small electronic that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and allows you to play the game without constantly looking at your phone. It will alert you when a Pokemon is approaching and other such events with both a flashing LED and by vibrating. There’s also a button in the center of the device that you can press to throw a Poke Ball at a wild Pokemon. When approaching a PokeStop you’ll also be able to press the button in the middle to search it for items.
It’s far from essential to playing the game, then, but will keep you from checking your phone 24/7. Plus, clipping a Poke Ball to your pocket and heading out into the wild goes that bit further to capturing the game’s atmosphere of adventure. It doesn’t appear to be available to pre-order at this time and we’re yet to confirm a full price for the kit.
It’s not the only bad news Nintendo has shared on the Pokemon GO front this week; on Monday we reported that the company’s shares had started to fall once more after it pointed out that it didn’t actually wholly own the Pokemon brand, thus the game’s success would only have a limited impact on its profits. Still, hopefully the rise in popularity of the Pokemon brand will carry through to this year’s big 3DS releases, Pokemon Sun and Moon, which launch in a few months’ time.
