Niantic's Ingress to get Netflix animated series later this year

Niantic's original location-based game will be brought back to the fore with a new animated series later this year.

Ingress: The Animation is being created by Crafter and Fuji TV, and will be distributed globally by Netflix towards the autumn, Variety reports. The series is based on Niantic's first title, which featured a sci-fi setting and split players into two factions - Enlighted and Resistance - as they fight for the control of portals leaking 'exotic matter' into our world.

The series will expand on this fiction, crafting stories around new characters that are swept up in this conflict, with plans to bring the antagonist of the show into Ingress. Niantic is no doubt hoping to capitalise on the success of other Netflix animated adaptations, with Castlevania being the most notable example.

Naturally, there will be further crossovers between the game and the animation but there are also plans to use the production to introduce elements of Ingress Prime to the audience. Due in October, this is the sequel and reworking of the first title and will be built on learnings from both the original and Pokémon Go (which was heavily based on the technology and structure of Ingress).

Speaking to Variety, Niantic boss John Hanke said these lessons include making it easier for people to understand and play the game, working around the way most mobile gamers use augmented reality, and increasing awareness.

"We're trying to take those lessons and make Ingress mos accessible," he said. "Ingress is a deliberatly obscure game. We want to make sure people can make their way through that and get to the actual gameplay. We want to make that smoother for Ingress Prime."

While it never reached the same success as Pokémon Go, Ingress has still achieved more than 20 million downloads worldwide since the beta first launched in 2012.