Ananta Release Date: 15 January 2027 on PC, PS5, iOS and Android, With Launch Time, Beta and the New City

Ananta releases on 15 January 2027, worldwide and on the same day on PC, PlayStation 5, iOS and Android, as a free-to-play game. NetEase and the developer Naked Rain announced the date at Gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live on 25 August 2026, with a trailer that added a second city, Chongxiao, to the map.

Arekkz Gaming broke that announcement down two days later. This page follows their video and checks it against what NetEase has published. Three things are kept apart throughout: what is confirmed, what has only been reported, and what Arekkz Gaming read into the footage. Every screenshot is pre-release footage from their video, with its timestamp.

Ananta release date: 15 January 2027, worldwide

The date is official. It sits on anantagame.com, on the key art above and in the launch date trailer NetEase premiered at Gamescom on 25 August 2026. Arekkz Gaming open on it at 0:15. In their previous video the game was “apparently targeting 2026”, but they felt 2027 was the more realistic bet, and it was.

Their other observation is about the calendar. A big release in mid-January looks to them like a team stepping out of GTA VI’s way, and they note that a lot of the people in their comments want Ananta without having any interest in GTA. That is their reading, not anything NetEase has said. The status on 7 October 2026:

Question	Answer	Status
Release date	15 January 2027, worldwide	Confirmed (Gamescom ONL, 25 August 2026)
Platforms	PC (Steam and NetEase launcher), PS5, iOS, Android	Confirmed
Price	Free-to-play, no character gacha	Confirmed
Xbox	No version announced	Not announced
Launch hour and time zone	Not given	Not announced
Global beta	None scheduled	Not announced
Cities at launch	Nova City and Lingyun City in Chongxiao	Confirmed (trailer description)
Pre-registrations	More than 17 million	Confirmed (NetEase)

Ananta release date on PC, PS5, Android and iOS

All four platforms launch together on 15 January 2027. No staggered mobile release, no console window. Arekkz Gaming sum it up at 0:36 as “PlayStation 5, PC and mobile”, still free-to-play.

Platform	Release date	Where to pre-register
PC (Steam, NetEase launcher)	15 January 2027	Official website, Steam wishlist
PlayStation 5	15 January 2027	PlayStation Store
Android	15 January 2027	Google Play
iOS	15 January 2027	App Store
Xbox	Not announced	Not available

Xbox players have nothing to go on: no version has been announced, and none appears among the store logos on the key art. Cross-play and cross-save have not been detailed either. The requirements page lists what a PC needs.

How many players have pre-registered for Ananta?

More than 17 million, in 110 countries and regions. The milestone page Arekkz Gaming show at 1:05 runs much further than that: rewards are lined up all the way to 35 million sign-ups.

Read off the frame, the rewards are 10K Golvent at 15 million, 1 Clothing Dye at 20 million, 1 Profile Card at 25 million, 100 Jillion Vouchers at 30 million and a Character Outfit at 35 million. The car paint Arekkz Gaming get excited about is not on that track: the panel on the right ties “1 Car Paint Selector” to 7,000,000 social media followers. Either way, it confirms vehicle liveries. Steam wishlists rose by around 302,000 between 23 and 30 August 2026, per Alinea Analytics.

What time does Ananta release on 15 January 2027?

Not announced. NetEase has given the day but no hour or time zone, as of our last check on 7 October 2026. Global NetEase launches usually go live at one worldwide moment, but that is a habit, not a promise.

Was Ananta delayed?

No. Ananta had no official date before 25 August 2026, so nothing slipped; only outside expectations moved. Analysts had pencilled in late 2026, and on 29 June 2026 a JPMorgan note on NetEase pushed its forecast to the first half of 2027. The dated history:

Date	What happened	Status
Late 2024	Project Mugen is renamed Ananta	Confirmed
3 to 4 January 2025	Offline technical test in Hangzhou, PC, selected players	Confirmed
16 to 20 January 2026	Closed beta in China on PC	Reported by the community only
29 June 2026	JPMorgan moves its forecast from late 2026 to early 2027	Analyst note
25 August 2026	Date announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live, with the Chongxiao trailer	Confirmed
29 August 2026	IGN developer interview, flagged by Arekkz Gaming at 7:20	Held
15 January 2027	Worldwide launch on PC, PS5, iOS and Android	Confirmed

The name change has its own page: Project Mugen is now Ananta.

Is there an Ananta beta test before launch?

No global beta or open test has been announced as of 7 October 2026. The only confirmed test is the offline technical test in Hangzhou on 3 and 4 January 2025. A closed beta in China from 16 to 20 January 2026 was reported by players, never announced by NetEase.

Arekkz Gaming close their video hoping for “some kind of beta” before launch. The developers have been cool on the idea: in interviews after Gamescom the director said public tests show players too much of a game before release, without ruling out another one. We covered that reasoning in our gameplay previews article, also built on an Arekkz Gaming video.

Chongxiao and Lingyun City: Ananta launches with two cities

This was the other big Gamescom reveal. Everything shown before August 2026 took place in Nova City; the launch date trailer’s official description says the story “unfolds between Nova City and Chongxiao’s Lingyun City”. The auto captions turn the name into “Chong Shayo”, and Arekkz Gaming use Chongxiao for the city itself. Officially Chongxiao is the region and Lingyun the city.

Arekkz Gaming describe traditional Chinese architecture mixed with Ananta’s futuristic side: old streets and buildings, with flying cars passing overhead. NetEase named Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tokyo as the inspirations, as reported by Gematsu and Game Informer.

They also call it “pretty massive”, pointing at the wide shots of the skyline, and they catch the Captain talking about coming back home, which suggests he has history there. Two large cities at launch is a lot. The developers have said in interviews that more cities can come later as extra content, which leads Arekkz Gaming to expect a “truly massive” game within a couple of years. Their gameplay previews video goes through the activities shown so far.

What the Ananta release date trailer shows

More story than earlier footage. Driving, swinging and messing about in the city are all still there, but Arekkz Gaming single out investigation scenes, stealth and big set pieces: the hero jumping between moving vehicles, fights high above the city, sequences they compare to a big single-player action game. They take it as a sign the story could be good.

Then the vehicles. “Clearly, one of the developers somewhere is just saying yes to everything,” they say at 3:26, listing cars, bikes, mopeds, skateboards, bicycles, jet skis and flying vehicles. They are glad about the bicycles: back when GTA V launched, they made bicycle montages.

One shot made them wonder about side jobs: a tow truck hauling away a police car. They suspect towing could be an activity, as in GTA and Saints Row, since racing and small jobs have already been shown. That is their guess; NetEase has not listed it.

The Captain also looks stronger than before. Arekkz Gaming describe a “Dragon Ball Z fight midair”, two figures flying around and smashing into each other above the city, and the Captain later sprawled in what they call the Yamcha pose. To them it recalls Saints Row, where the open world keeps escalating until your powers are ridiculous.

The last shot shows an enormous structure hovering over the city. Arekkz Gaming read it as a space station or an alien city and ask, half joking, whether Ananta has aliens. Nothing official explains it.

Shi Ye and the new characters

Shi Ye is the new name in the trailer. The captions spell her “Shi Yi”; the official English spelling is Shi Ye, 时夜 in Chinese. Arekkz Gaming describe her as an old friend of the Captain who shows him around, and say her bio paints her as the person you go to when you need something done. NetEase’s profile is more specific: she is the Captain’s childhood friend who supplies the money and the tech, with the line “I handle the cash, you handle the fighting.”

Whether Shi Ye is playable is unconfirmed. The trailer also widens the cast: earlier footage centred on the Captain, Taffy and a handful of others, while this one fills the new city with faces. The official site lists six characters, including Yinglong, Lingyun’s 21st Director. The full roster is on our characters page.

The social media system: from new arrival to influencer

Building a following is part of the story. Arekkz Gaming spot the Captain gaining followers after he reaches the city, under the online name “Yeet Master”, which he seems confused by; they think it is meant to be cringe. The official messaging, they note, has pushed the idea of becoming an influencer while everything around you goes wrong.

What the system does in play is unknown. Arekkz Gaming wonder whether activities raise your following, whether characters react once you are famous, and guess it works as a kind of rank for your character. The livestream screen is the most concrete thing shown so far: a rules notice, viewers joining and leaving, gift and like buttons.

Ananta PC requirements, in short

The minimum is a GTX 1060 6G, an i5-9400F or Ryzen 7 3700X and 16 GB of RAM; the recommended spec jumps to an RTX 3080, an i7-12700K or Ryzen 9 9900X and 32 GB, with 40 GB and 100 GB of storage. Arekkz Gaming warn at 7:06 that no resolution or frame rate is attached to either tier. The auto captions garble two parts (“RTX 380”, “Ryzen 99900X”); the figures above match the full Ananta PC requirements page, which also covers the GPU-by-GPU detail. Until 15 January 2027, the trailers page has every official video, and the no-gacha explainer covers how a free game this size makes money.