Pokemon GO Plus available for pre-order at Best Buy, shipping out in January

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The wait for the fabled Pokemon GO Plus may soon be coming to an end, as Best Buy has made the accessory available for pre-order. For those not in the know, Pokemon GO Plus is an accessory that allows you to catch Pokemon and get items from PokeStops with the touch of the button. It acts as a companion to the app, meaning you don't have to constantly stare at your phone to play Pokemon GO when you're out and about.

It promises to be a handy tool for those who are still caught up in Pokemon fever, but the wait for its arrival has been long. Originally slated to launch at the end of July – the same month that Pokemon GO launched here in the US – the Plus was hit with a string of delays that have now pushed it into next year.

So now that it's up for pre-order, that means we have a launch date, right? Not entirely. Best Buy's listing gives the Pokemon GO Plus a ship date of January 20, 2017, but Nintendo and Niantic have yet to confirm an actual release date for the device. It's possible that Best Buy's date is just a placeholder, but we've reached out to Nintendo nonetheless to see if there's any truth to the date listed. We'll update this article if we hear back.

Pokemon GO has managed to make its way back into the news recently. Amid rumors of an incoming holiday event, Niantic and The Pokemon Company announced a few days ago that new Pokemon are soon coming to the game. Whether those Pokemon are the legendary monsters that have been missing from Pokemon GO thus far or the roster of Pokemon introduced in Gold and Silver remains unseen, as Niantic won't be sharing more details until next week.

If Niantic is planning to add the lineup from Gold and Silver, then launching Pokemon GO Plus around the same time would be a good move. Such an update would add around 100 Pokemon to the game, giving players a reason to start hunting once more. We'll let you know if Nintendo has anything to say about the launch of Pokemon GO Plus, so keep it here.

SOURCE: Best Buy