Ingress Prime launches today, first major live events imminent

Today, Niantic launched the follow-up to its original location-based mobile title Ingress, called Ingress Prime.

Just like Ingress, Ingress Prime features Niantic's Real World Platform that overlays virtual locations with real-world ones, allowing players to interact with them in the game and strengthen whichever of the game's two factions they choose to join at the start.

"Ingress taught us a lot about real world games," said Niantic CEO John Hanke at a press briefing, as reported by VentureBeat. "To our surprise, it was able to get people off the couch, going all over the world all in pursuit of glory and success in the game. It was a lab experiment at Google, and it led us to where we are today."

After the success of Pokemon Go and the experience of developing Ingress, Niantic is coming at Ingress Prime with a heftier budget and a more targeted plan of attack for marketing and sustaining the game long-term. Part of this involves an 11-episode animated adaptation coming to Netflix in 2019.

Another element Niantic will push is its Anomaly events. In the coming year, Niantic will host 12 major events (three per quarter in Asia, Europe, and the Americas) and over 100 smaller, community-led events to supplement them. The events will begin on November 16 at three locations: Austin, Texas; Barcelona; and Hong Kong.

Finally, Niantic will also be creating a web series to go along with Ingress Prime and communicate the game's lore. The series, entitled The Dunraven project, is a live-action series that will progress the story of the game based on the actions of its two factions over time.