Who makes ANANTA: Naked Rain, NetEase and the people behind the game

ANANTA is developed by Naked Rain, a NetEase studio with offices in Hangzhou and Montreal, and published by NetEase Games (fact in the registry). Its producer is Ash Qi, who has spoken about the game in interviews since 2023. On Steam the developer is listed as Naked Rain Studio.

What is Naked Rain?

NetEase’s August 2026 press release describes Naked Rain as a studio with a global development approach and studios in Hangzhou and Montreal. It credits the team with more than ten years of experience in free-to-play games and says the studio leads story production, art and commercialization. It names console, PC and mobile operations, an art team focused on anime IP, open worlds and cross-platform development as the studio’s strengths.

Inside NetEase, Naked Rain belongs to Thunder Fire. PocketGamer.biz called it a Thunder Fire Studio subsidiary when Project Mugen was revealed in August 2023, and Wikipedia places it under Hangzhou NetEase Thunderfire Technology (reliable in the registry). NetEase’s own English press releases don’t name the group.

PocketGamer.biz also wrote in 2023 that the project draws on team members in China and Montreal. When the Montreal studio opened and how the work is split between the two cities, NetEase hasn’t said, and we haven’t found a source that does.

How many people work on ANANTA?

NetEase hasn’t published a team size. A figure of 700 to 800 people comes from Icy Veins’ summary of producer interviews at Tokyo Game Show 2025. We didn’t find it in the interviews themselves, so the registry labels it a rumor (rumor in the registry).

Who speaks for ANANTA

• Ash Qi, producer at Naked Rain. In 2023 he told GamesRadar that movement uses no stamina (fact in the registry). In 2025 he explained the no-gacha model to Denfaminicogamer and co-op with friends to IGN Japan, and in 2026 he told TechRadar the goal is the biggest open world among free-to-play games (fact in the registry).
• Tian Yu, a member of the development team. At Gamescom 2026 Tian Yu told GAME Watch that a female Captain is planned for launch and that confidential tests have been held, but no global beta (fact in the registry).
• Link, ANANTA’s Global Publishing Lead, and Rain, its International Marketing Lead. They told Pocket Tactics at Gamescom 2026 that the game offers both a male and a female Captain (fact in the registry).
• Unnamed leads and representatives. The publishing and marketing leads told Insider Gaming that ANANTA will be supported for at least seven years (fact in the registry), and a NetEase representative told AUTOMATON that a multiplayer mode is in development.

What NetEase does

NetEase Games, the online games division of NetEase, Inc., publishes ANANTA. The same press release lists Marvel Rivals, Where Winds Meet, Knives Out and Naraka: Bladepoint among NetEase Games’ titles.

In the stores, the App Store names NetEase Interactive Entertainment Pte. Ltd. as the seller, the same company the PlayStation Store lists as publisher. On Google Play the developer account is Exptional Global, a Singapore company with a NetEase support address (fact in the registry). On October 28, 2026 the same account also listed Once Human, Where Winds Meet and Destiny: Rising.

From Project Mugen to ANANTA

NetEase revealed the game as Project Mugen at Gamescom on August 24, 2023, and renamed it ANANTA on November 29, 2024 (fact in the registry). In December 2024 it received a Chinese publishing license (fact in the registry), and in September 2025 Tokyo Game Show visitors played the first public demo (fact in the registry). At Gamescom 2026 NetEase set the launch date. The full timeline is in the history of ANANTA.

Which engine does Naked Rain use?

Unity, according to Unity China. The engine maker’s official account wrote in December 2024 that ANANTA reached its visual quality and performance with Unity, naming full-scene ray tracing and GPU-driven rendering for large cities (reliable in the registry). NetEase hasn’t named the engine in its own materials. On PC the game supports NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 (fact in the registry).

What the team has promised

• No character gacha: every playable character is unlocked by playing (fact in the registry).
• New characters and cities in free story updates, according to Ash Qi (fact in the registry).
• At least seven years of support with new quests, characters and maps, according to the publishing and marketing leads.

How the game compares with Rockstar’s is in ANANTA vs GTA 6. Naked Rain’s game launches worldwide on January 15, 2027, on PC, PS5, iOS and Android (fact in the registry).