Ananta — everything we know
Everything confirmed about Ananta — NetEase's free-to-play, open-world action RPG from Hangzhou studio Naked Rain — in one place, updated as news drops. You roam the anime-styled sprawl of Nova City and Chongxiao on foot, by car and by grappling between skyscrapers, switch characters mid-fight, and live a story between the action. The global launch is set for 15 January 2027: here is everything confirmed so far, and what is still open.
Last updated: 4 September 2026
The launch date trailer
The facts
Update log
NetEase posted on both the global and the Chinese site that ANANTA will support DLSS 4.5. It is the only update either site has carried since the release date went out, and it says nothing about the date itself.
ANANTA closed its long stretch without a date at gamescom Opening Night Live. The trailer went up on the official channel at 18:21 UTC as “ANANTA Launch Date Trailer | Global Release January 15th, 2027”, and the same date appears on Steam as a planned release, in the page title of anantagame.com, on the Chinese site ananta.163.com, and in the post from the official account — four sources, no disagreement between them, which is rarer than it sounds. Pre-registration opened the same day across Steam, PlayStation, the App Store and Google Play. The story is set between Nova City and Chongxiao’s Lingyun City. There is still no beta announced for the global version; the only test on the record is the offline technical test held in Hangzhou from 3 January 2025.
Ananta ran its first Closed Beta Test on PC in the China region — the first real hands-on with main chapters, character storylines and playable units. Source: Wikipedia.
A new gameplay trailer went deeper on Nova City, traversal and combat, and the game was playable on the TGS 2025 show floor (25–28 September). Source: NetEase Games.
NetEase and Naked Rain dropped a full, GTA-6-inspired reveal trailer showing off Nova City, and opened pre-registration. Source: Eurogamer.
The game took its final name — Ananta, meaning "without end" — dropping the Project Mugen codename. (China's release approval followed in December 2024.) Source: PCGamesN.
The project debuted as Project Mugen with its first promotional video, immediately drawing "anime GTA meets Genshin" comparisons. Source: IGN.
ANANTA screenshots
Screenshots via the game’s Steam store page · © their respective rights holders.
What we know
Everything below has been shown or stated by Naked Rain and NetEase across the reveal, the Tokyo Game Show 2025 build and the first closed beta. Where a number is given, it is theirs.
Ananta casts you as an Infinite Trigger, a supernatural investigator looking into anomalies and paranormal events in a world where the commonplace and calamity intermingle freely. The main characters are Espers — people with supernatural abilities — each with their own story and their own fight against a spreading force called Chaos. The shorthand reviewers keep reaching for: GTA-style city freedom with anime-RPG combat on top.
The first district, Nova Inception Urbs, is built in a Japanese urban style; European- and American-inspired cities are planned to open up later, and you can travel between them. Each city is procedurally generated by stitching together hand-designed areas — beaches, parks, factories. City life is interactive down to the props: traversal needs no stamina, and in combat you can grab ordinary objects around you as improvised weapons.
You explore and fight as one character, but in major battles you switch between a team of four, chaining abilities that synergise; the squad can also equip a team-wide effect like crowd control or telekinesis. Each character levels up through their own quests and challenges. You start as the Captain — a male or female avatar with a name, outfit and car you choose — and take control of more of the cast as the story opens up.
Ananta is free-to-play, and it was confirmed in 2025 that it will not use a gacha system for characters — every playable character is obtained by progressing through the game. Monetisation instead lives in cosmetic customisation: outfits, vehicles and homes. Whether any gacha mechanic touches those cosmetics hasn't been detailed.
Locked in vs still open
- Free-to-play urban open-world action RPG
- Naked Rain (NetEase Thunderfire) · NetEase Games
- Set in Nova City
- PC, PlayStation 5, iOS and Android
- Built on Unity · 700+ developers
- No gacha for characters
- First Closed Beta Test, January 2026
- Release date or window
- Full monetisation model beyond characters
- Any PlayStation 4 version
- A second beta date
- Western pre-registration and reward tiers
- PC system requirements
FAQ
When is the Ananta release date?
No official release date has been announced yet. Naked Rain hasn't set a release window, and the official site has pre-registration open but lists no date. Promotional materials and community speculation point to a tentative 2026 window — some stretch it to late 2026 or early 2027 — but none of that is confirmed. This page updates the moment a real date lands.
What platforms is Ananta on?
PC, PlayStation 5, iOS and Android.
Is Ananta a gacha game?
It's free-to-play, and it was confirmed in 2025 that characters are not gacha-locked — you earn them by playing. Monetisation is focused on cosmetics like outfits, vehicles and homes.
Who is making Ananta, and how big is the team?
Hangzhou studio Naked Rain (under NetEase Thunderfire), published by NetEase Games, with more than 700 developers across Hangzhou and Montreal. It's built on Unity and was previously known as Project Mugen.
Has there been a beta?
Yes — the first Closed Beta Test ran 16–20 January 2026 on PC in the China region, with more expected before launch.
What kind of game is Ananta?
An urban open-world action RPG set in Nova City: GTA-style city freedom — driving, biking, parkour and grappling — with fast four-character combat and a supernatural story about Espers fighting a force called Chaos.