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PS5’s Most Promising Anime Open World Will Re-Emerge Next Week
NetEase's ambitious anime open-world game Ananta, planned for PS5, is set to receive a fresh update during Gamescom Opening Night Live on 25th August. Host Geoff Keighley confirmed via social media that viewers will get a "fresh look" at the free-to-play title, which blends varied gameplay elements including a recently confirmed soccer minigame. The update matters because the project, first revealed in 2023 under the name Project Mugen, has been in development for years without a firm release date.
Ananta is being built by roughly 800 developers and is described as a GTA-style free-to-play experience that will forgo traditional gacha mechanics in favour of cosmetic-only monetisation, though further details are still awaited. Push Square's editor, who has gone hands-on with the game, hopes next week's showcase might finally bring a release window or open beta announcement, though he suspects a launch is unlikely before 2027 given the scale of the project's ambitions.
In short
- Ananta gets a "fresh look" at Gamescom Opening Night Live on 25th August.
- Free-to-play PS5 title uses cosmetic monetisation, no gacha system.
- Release unlikely before 2027 despite 800-person development team.
Explained simply
Ananta is a free-to-play open-world game being developed by NetEase, a Chinese games company. It was first shown in 2023 as Project Mugen and is planned for PlayStation 5, though it has no confirmed release date.
The game is described as mixing different activities in a large city, including action and a football minigame. Its developers say it will use cosmetic purchases rather than the randomised character-purchase systems common in some free-to-play games.
The project’s long development and large team have left questions about when people will be able to play it. Its progress matters to players watching for a new open-world game on PS5 and to those interested in how it will fund ongoing development.