These days many might associate developer Niantic with Pokemon GO, but for those who are unfamiliar, Niantic actually started out as a startup under Google where they debuted an augmented reality (AR) game called Ingress way back in 2012, although it’s safe to say that it never quite took off the same way Pokemon GO did.
However the company isn’t done with Ingress yet because Niantic has recently announced that come 2018, they will be issuing a massive update to the game that will revamp it completely and will be known as “Ingress Prime”. According to Niantic’s CEO John Hanke, “This game was the place where we figured out all of the things that we later applied to Pokémon Go, and will be drawing from for other projects that we do in the future. We really look at it as our spiritual core.”
In a way you could say that many of Pokemon GO’s features were a result of Ingress, such as location-based elements. However it is possible that Ingress was ahead of its time when it launched in 2012, and given that we now have a better understanding and appreciation of AR as a technology, Ingress Prime could be worth checking out.
There is no specific date on when Ingress Prime will be released, but it’ll be some time in 2018. In the meantime Niantic is also working on a Harry Potter AR title with Warner Bros. that is also being primed for a release in 2018.