Nintendo announces new gaming hardware: an alarm clock called Alarmo

Nintendo will launch new gaming hardware in 2024. It's not the Switch 2, but the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, a new motion-sensing alarm clock that wakes you from sleep with the sounds of video games Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildand more.

The $99.99 alarm clock includes 35 wake-up “scenes” from Nintendo Switch games. Users will “experience immersive sounds and music” in these scenes, with a style adapted from Nintendo franchises. Alarmo also tracks users' sleep and movement. Trackers record how much you move, similar to the sleep tracker Pokémon Go Plus Plus that Nintendo released Pokémon Go/Pokémon Sleep (and the long promised but seemingly abandoned QOL project).

Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo will have various alarm settings, Nintendo said in a press release. The watch's Steady mode has an alarm that gets more intense the longer you stay in bed. Gentle mode provides “a more consistent level of intensity.” And the button mode is a classic snooze button mode that requires you to press Alarmo to turn it off. Nintendo's new interactive motion-sensing alarm clock also features “Sleep Sounds” – soothing music that will hopefully lull you to sleep at night.

Alarmo can be purchased directly from Nintendo, but only for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Nintendo will sell the Alarmo in retail starting in early 2025, the company said.

Nintendo announced plans to launch a sleep monitoring device back in 2014. At the time, the company had much bigger plans for its “quality of life” health device: It wanted to measure not only a user's movement via motion sensors, but also their heart rate. Breathing and fatigue and link this data to Nintendo's special video game devices. Then-Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in 2014 that the company intended to expand its business into the healthcare market, hoping to improve the “quality of life through entertainment.” But with the success of the Switch, Nintendo has pushed back on its QOL device plans…until now.

For more information on the development of Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, check out the new Ask the Developer Q&A session on the Nintendo website.