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Google may be planning an Ingress TV show

Google may be planning an Ingress TV show

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Ingress, Google's augmented reality science fiction game, might be coming to television. The Information reports that Niantic Labs, which develops Ingress, has partnered for a series with the Sean Daniel Company, the producer behind SyFy's upcoming miniseries The Expanse. Flint Dille, Ingress' creative lead and a longtime screenwriter, has reportedly also been helping to develop a TV show. The Information says that Niantic is looking at traditional TV networks or streaming video services like Netflix, but that it hasn't actually pitched the show to them and is still looking for a showrunner. Niantic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Show would be "another layer of the game's world."

Unsurprisingly, The Information says that Niantic sees this as "another layer of the game's world," where "elements of the show would influence gameplay." Ingress, which launched as a closed beta in 2012 and opened up in 2013, is a mobile game based in physical space. Players join one of two factions and vie for control of real-life locations, collecting resources and capturing "portals" for their side. It's big enough that a meet-up can draw several thousand people, and Google is trying to launch a convention this year.

Ingress already has a YouTube channel, where it hosts tutorials and news reports from within its fictional world. A traditional network series would be something very new, if it's actually happening. But it wouldn't be Niantic's only link to the larger media landscape. The company is partnering with author James Frey for Endgame, a vast multimedia experiment that's based on a trilogy of young adult books but includes a film series, a physical scavenger hunt, and a Niantic-developed augmented reality game that will launch later this year.

Ingress' plot has loose ties to Endgame, so technically, this is all part of some huge story that can be traced back to one of the world's most influential corporations. It's enough to spawn some great meta-conspiracy theories — if, once again, it ever gets off the ground.