The wait is finally over for one of the most-watched free-to-play games on Singapore fans’ radars. NetEase Games and developer Naked Rain took the stage at Gamescom Opening Night Live on 25 August to drop the launch date for their open-world urban RPG Ananta: January 15, 2027, worldwide. The studio also confirmed that the game’s full roster of playable characters can be unlocked through story progression — no gacha pulls required.
From Project Mugen to Ananta — What Singapore Fans Watched Grow
The game first turned heads at Gamescom 2023 under the working title Project Mugen, earning comparisons to Grand Theft Auto for its dense open-world city design layered over anime-style characters and supernatural combat. It was renamed Ananta — meaning “infinity” or “without end” in Sanskrit — in November 2024. As we covered ahead of this year’s ONL, the game had been quiet for nearly a year before this week’s reveal, making the release date confirmation all the more welcome.
January 15, 2027 — Platforms and Availability
Ananta launches simultaneously worldwide on:
- PlayStation 5
- PC — via Steam and NetEase’s own client
- iOS and Android
No Nintendo Switch 2 or Xbox version has been announced. Singapore players on PS5 and PC have a clear path to the game on day one; mobile availability makes it accessible to the large share of the SEA market that plays on phone. No SGD pricing has been announced for cosmetic items yet, but the base game is free-to-play.
No Character Gacha — How You Build Your Roster
This is the headline for anyone burned by the standard free-to-play model. According to information published ahead of the gamescom reveal, Naked Rain confirmed that playable ACD agents are obtained by progressing through the story, not through random banner pulls. Monetisation instead focuses on cosmetics — outfits, vehicles, and housing customisation — rather than the characters themselves.
For Singapore and SEA gamers who have watched years of gacha fatigue accumulate across mobile RPGs, that framing matters. Free-to-play with no character gacha positions Ananta closer to titles like Fortnite or Path of Exile than a typical mobile gacha. Whether the cosmetics pricing stays reasonable is something only the live game will confirm — but the baseline commitment is the right one.
Two Cities, Infinite Chaos — What the Open World Looks Like
The game spans Nova City — a neon-lit Japanese-style metropolis — and Lingyun City in Chongxiao, drawing from the architecture of Shanghai and Hangzhou. The gamescom trailer doubled down on the “anime GTA” comparisons with parkour, wall-running, rope-swinging between skyscrapers, vehicle hijacking, flying cars, yachts, helicopters, and hang gliders, all set inside a city dense enough to get genuinely lost in.
Combat is built around martial arts — Shaolin kung fu techniques learned from NPC masters — and the four-character squad system gives each member distinct abilities. Over 100 NPCs carry individual storylines; building bonds with them unlocks new skills for your team.
Ananta lands on January 15, 2027 on PS5, PC, iOS, and Android. Wishlist it now on Steam. We’ll keep tracking it in our game news section.