Ananta now has a confirmed release date. NetEase Games and developer Naked Rain revealed during Gamescom 2026’s Opening Night Live that the free-to-play, anime-styled open-world RPG launches worldwide on January 15, 2027 for PS5, PC, and mobile — and confirmed it will skip the gacha system that funds most of its genre rivals.
Release Date, Platforms, and Price: What’s Confirmed
Ananta, previously known internally as “Project Mugen,” launches globally on January 15, 2027 on PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile (iOS and Android). No Xbox version has been announced. The game is free-to-play, with NetEase confirming the business model alongside the date at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live broadcast.
The date puts Ananta roughly two months after Grand Theft Auto 6, which Rockstar has dated for November 2026 — a comparison outlets including GamesRadar have leaned into given Ananta’s own reputation as an “anime GTA,” built around an open city, vehicles, and irreverent street-level chaos rather than the gacha-driven combat loops that define most anime live-service games.
Why Skipping Gacha Is the Real Story
The bigger news out of Gamescom isn’t the date — it’s what NetEase explicitly ruled out. Automaton confirmed Ananta has no character gacha system at all. Every playable character is unlocked through story progression. There are no banners, no pull currency, and no randomized-chance rolls for the characters themselves. Monetization is limited to cosmetics: outfits, vehicles, and player housing customization.
That’s a real departure, not a marketing footnote. Character gacha is the financial backbone of the genre Ananta is otherwise chasing: Genshin Impact and its imitators make most of their revenue from players spending to pull specific characters, with drop rates low enough that chasing a single unit can cost hundreds of dollars. By handing over every character for free through progression, NetEase gives up the single biggest revenue lever in free-to-play anime gaming and bets that a bigger, friction-free player base spending steadily on cosmetics beats a smaller base of whales chasing banners — a volume play instead of a whale play, and exactly why the game leans so hard into GTA-style mainstream appeal instead of a niche gacha audience. It’s also a notable pivot for NetEase, whose other major live-service game, Marvel Rivals, built its audience without leaning on the character-gacha model Ananta now explicitly rejects.
What the New Trailer Showed
The Gamescom trailer set most of its footage in Ananta’s two confirmed locations: Nova City and Lingyun, a town in the Chongxiao region. The pitch is tonal range rather than one aesthetic — neon-lit nightlife districts sit alongside quiet public parks in the same open world. Combat runs on a four-character squad system, where teammates’ distinct attributes are meant to complement each other rather than having one character carry a fight alone. Traversal covers parkour, wall-climbing, and swinging, plus mobility unique to individual characters — one sequence shows a character riding a specialized warhammer as a traversal tool rather than just a weapon.
The footage also leaned hard into the game’s irreverent streak: players freely intercept, hijack, and drive cars around the city, environmental objects get used creatively as weapons against monster-type threats, and the trailer works in pop-culture gags including a recreated Leonardo DiCaprio champagne-toast moment and a Dragon Ball-style Goku reference. Four playable characters are confirmed at launch — Captain, Taffy, Richie, and Seymour — out of a world reported to hold 13 or more unique characters total, with more opening up as players progress through the story.
What’s Still Unconfirmed
NetEase hasn’t detailed the full character roster beyond the four named launch characters, so how the rest of the 13-plus world characters become playable, and on what timeline, is unknown. Combat depth beyond the squad-complement concept — skill trees, weapon variety, difficulty scaling — hasn’t been broken down either. Pricing for the cosmetics-only monetization, and whether a battle pass sits alongside direct purchases, remains unannounced.
| Detail | Confirmed Info |
|---|---|
| Developer | Naked Rain |
| Publisher | NetEase Games |
| Platforms | PS5, PC, iOS, Android (no Xbox announced) |
| Release Date | January 15, 2027 (worldwide) |
| Business Model | Free-to-play |
| Monetization | Cosmetics only (outfits, vehicles, housing) — no character gacha |
Comic Book Co first flagged Ananta in our Gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live preview, back when it was still going by its former codename. The release date, platforms, and monetization model are now all locked in, with DualShockers carrying a full breakdown of the Opening Night Live announcement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ananta?
Ananta is a free-to-play, anime-styled open-world action RPG developed by Naked Rain and published by NetEase Games, previously known internally as “Project Mugen.” It’s set in the city of Nova City and the town of Lingyun, and is frequently nicknamed an “anime GTA” for its open-world car and combat gameplay.
When does Ananta release?
Ananta launches worldwide on January 15, 2027, confirmed by NetEase Games during Gamescom 2026’s Opening Night Live.
What platforms is Ananta coming to?
Ananta is confirmed for PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile (iOS and Android). No Xbox version has been announced.
Is Ananta a gacha game?
No. NetEase has explicitly confirmed Ananta has no character gacha system. Every playable character unlocks through story progression, and monetization is limited to cosmetics like outfits, vehicles, and player housing customization.
What’s the combat like in Ananta?
Ananta uses a four-character squad system where teammates’ distinct attributes complement each other in fights. Traversal includes parkour, wall-climbing, swinging, and character-specific mobility tools, and the Gamescom trailer showed players hijacking and driving cars and using the environment creatively in combat.
