The official Pokémon Black and White website has announced some new information about the upcoming Pokémon Dream World and Pokémon Global Battle Union. Both will launch on the Pokémon Global Link website on March 30th, 2011. Players who have purchased Pokémon Black and White will not be able to use the Game Sync feature of the C-Gear until that day. Random Matchup challenge in Rating Mode also requires access to the Pokémon Global Link. If a player tries to use either option in the games before Pokémon Global Link is available, a 13212 error code stating: "The server is undergoing maintenance" will be displayed. Below is some of the new information regarding the upcoming Pokémon Dream World and Pokémon Global Battle Union from the official site.

At Play in the Pokémon Dream World!

Let Fennel Be Your Guide. Fennel is the creator of the Game Sync, the feature that lets your Pokémon visit the Pokémon Dream World. She'll guide you through your first steps in the Pokémon Dream World. To get the most out of the Pokémon Dream World, you'll need to register your copy of Pokémon Black Version or Pokémon White Version. But if you want to check out the Pokémon Dream World without registering, Fennel will let you borrow her Pokémon Munna.

When you first access the Pokémon Dream World, Fennel will appear to guide you through the steps to get started. You can try out the Pokémon Dream World even if you don't have a copy of one of the games. Explore the Pokémon Dream World with Fennel's Munna. You can then register your copy of Pokémon Black Version or Pokémon White Version and send your own Pokémon to the Pokémon Dream World.

Befriend Pokémon on the Island of Dreams!

From your home in the Pokémon Dream World, you can cross a bridge to reach the Island of Dreams. There are a number of interesting areas there that are inhabited by Pokémon from other regions. Take the rainbow-colored bridge from your home to the mysterious Island of Dreams. You can find items and encounter Pokémon here that you wouldn't encounter in the Unova region. Play games with the Pokémon you find on the Island of Dreams! Do well enough in the games, and the Pokémon you played with will become your friend. Visit the Tree of Dreams to have the Pokémon return to your game with you. On the Island of Dreams, you can explore the forest, the sea, and the sky. There are several different games for you to play with the Pokémon you'll meet. Try to befriend as many Pokémon as you can by doing well in their games!

Spruce Up Your Home!

You can spend the Berries you grow to improve the look of your home in the Pokémon Dream World. Trade Berries to buy new Décor items using the Dream Catalogue. Your room is pretty barren when you first arrive in the Pokémon Dream World. The more you play in the Pokémon Dream World, the more kinds of Décor items will become available to you.

Trade Items with Players!

Explore the Island of Dreams in the Pokémon Dream World to find items. Then, you can put these items and Berries you've grown on the Share Shelf in your home. When other players visit, they can exchange their items for ones on your Share Shelf. You can trade for different kinds of Berries and increase the variety of Berries you can grow! Look all around the Island of Dreams for items you can pick up. Place items you want to trade on your Share Shelf, or visit other people's homes and trade items from their shelves. Be sure to trade Berries you've grown with other players to increase the kinds of Berries you can grow!

Keep the Items You've Found

All of the items and Berries you'll find in the Pokémon Dream World can be brought into your Pokémon Black Version or Pokémon White Version game. Just put them in the Treasure Chest in your home, then transfer them to your game all at once. All of the Berries and items you've found will be stored in the Treasure Chest in your home. Use Game Sync to awaken your Pokémon and bring the items into your game. Speak to the boy at the entrance of the Entree Forest to receive all the items you sent.

Pokémon Global Battle Union

Battle Trainers around the world with the Pokémon Global Battle Union, a feature of the Pokémon Global Link. Using the Global Battle Union, you'll be able to compete with other Trainers anywhere, any time. Plus, you'll be able to sign up for official Pokémon Battle Competitions!


Sources: PokemonBlackWhite.com & Pokémon Global Link Website

I can't wait for March the 30th, to see how that Dream World thing can expand the whole experience. Apparently, it looks like you can 'catch' some Pokémon in the Dream World, then transfer them to your Black and White game? Sounds great!
There's probably going to be some special events, with Pokémon available in the Dream Wolrd for a limited time.

Anyway, I sure hope the website will be easy to use, and more importantly, than they'll do everything to ensure the website won't go down like it did for the Japanese launch.

Personally, I find this website quite interesting, a nice way to expand the original experience of the game.

Question: for those who have tried the Japanese website, how does it work, performance-wise? Is it some sort of flash-based hell, or does the whole thing work rather smoothly? Usually, official website are plagued with an over-use of Flash, making navigation rather tedious, with each page taking some time to load. Is this the case for this one?

Unfortunately it is Flash hell. I'd wish companies like TPCi would stop using Flash, although it is getting better, its very annoying to have to use a plugin on your browser as it installs unnecessary software like McAfee's antivirus as well as the Flash being inherently slow. The actual site though is good and easy to use but they could have easily done it with AJAX/JS/PHP and other better web technologies that would have made for a better end user experience. Flash is meant to be an additional function/feature to a website, not completely made in Flash.

But then how could it be Farmville Pokemon edition?

Ok, thanks a lot for the answer.

It's as I feared, I guess. Looks like there's nothing else, but to hope it doesn't work too bad in Firefox 4.0 and the newest Flash Player.
And I agree with you on Flash. I'm not Steve Jobs, I don't hate Flash more than anything else in the world, but website developers just use it too much. Maybe it's easier to make websites with, which would explain why so many (video-games related) official websites are generally entirely based on Flash.

That, or they got some shares at Adobe.