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US software developer Niantic might be best known for Pokémon GO nowadays, but this wasn't always the case. Before the company shot to fame with its recent mobile sensation, it was focused on its own augmented reality game Ingress. With GO now nearly two-and-a-half years into its lifespan, Niantic has been able to return some of its focus to its own IP. Yesterday, it launched Ingress Prime - a rework of the original game built on lessons from Pokémon GO.

The team at Niantic is now hoping some of the features in the newer version of Ingress can be implemented into GO eventually. According to Eurogamer, one feature that would be appreciated is the new prestige system. Once players hit the level cap in Ingress Prime, they can now roll back to level one and gain unspecified "unique benefits" - with their prestige status also reflected to other players.

Many GO players have hit the level cap (40) as well - especially since the implementation of the friendship system. When asked if the prestige feature was coming to GO, Niantic engineering boss Niniana Wang said certain technologies could be used across every game:

The engineering that goes into those features can then be more easily integrated into each of our games... so when you ask specifically about prestige, some elements of that are very specific to Ingress, in particular the levelling and badges, [but] there's an amount of technology for features that do get put into libraries that can be used later, and there's an amount of learning that is then spread throughout our organisation.

Niantic has reiterated time and time again, it's able to apply its learnings from one game to another. In the case of Ingress Prime, it was able to experiment more freely when working with its own IP. Niantic also hopes to attract more of the hardcore GO crowd to Ingress Prime and will continue to use GO as "the world's best onboarding tool" for its own game.

Would you like to see a similar prestige system make its way to GO? Have you played Ingress before? Tell us in the comments.

[source eurogamer.net]