Who Makes Ananta?

Who is developing Ananta?

Naked Rain is the developer. NetEase Games is the publisher.

Naked Rain runs a deliberately split operation: a studio in Hangzhou, China, within NetEase's Thunderfire (Leihuo) technology division, and a second studio in Montreal, Canada. The Hangzhou side handles major storyline production, art and commercialisation; the arrangement is described as a global development approach rather than an outsourcing setup. NetEase's own press material credits Naked Rain with over a decade of free-to-play experience, an art team specialising in anime IP, and technical focus on open-world and cross-platform development.

Team size is reported at roughly 700 to 800 people across both studios. That figure is widely repeated but has not been stated in an official press release, so treat it as a credible estimate rather than a confirmed number.

Who is the producer?

Ash Qi is the producer and the most publicly visible person on the project. He is the source of the game's most consequential confirmed statement — that ANANTA will not put characters behind gacha, because doing so would conflict with the game's high-freedom design. He has also framed the combat as choreography influenced by Hong Kong action cinema, and has described the battle pass as under consideration rather than settled.

Why the studio background matters

NetEase Games' slate is the context for how much is riding on this. The publisher's recent credits include Marvel Rivals, Where Winds Meet, Knives Out and Naraka: Bladepoint, plus partnerships with Warner Bros and Mojang. Naked Rain, though, has no comparable shipped title of its own — ANANTA is its flagship.

That combination is why the pre-launch conversation is unusually tense. The publisher has live-service muscle, and the developer is effectively unproven at this scale. It also explains the caution around public testing: a first flagship carries more downside from a rough beta showing than an established studio would.

The name change: Project Mugen to ANANTA

The game was revealed at Gamescom on August 24, 2023 as Project Mugen (known in Chinese as 代号：无限大). It was rebranded to ANANTA in November 2024.

The name is drawn from Sanskrit and is commonly read as "without end" — a deliberate match for the studio's pitch of a city that keeps generating things to do. In Chinese the title remains 无限大 ("Infinite"), and the Japanese and Korean localisations keep both scripts: 無限大ANANTA and 무한대 ANANTA.

If you are searching older material, Project Mugen will still find 2023 and 2024 coverage. Useful for seeing how the concept evolved; not useful as a description of the January 2027 release, because substantial systems changed after the rebrand.

The Chinese release carries an approved publication number (国新出审〔2024〕2681号) and ISBN, which is one of the more concrete signs that the domestic version is well past the approval stage.

Where to follow the developers

The only first-party channels worth tracking are listed under official links. Everything else — including this wiki — is secondary. When a mechanic claim cannot be traced to one of those channels, or to a named interview with the producer, it does not belong in a guide.

FAQ

Who is making Ananta?

Naked Rain develops it and NetEase Games publishes it.

Is Naked Rain owned by NetEase?

Naked Rain operates within NetEase's Thunderfire division in Hangzhou, with an additional studio in Montreal.

How big is the Ananta team?

Reported at roughly 700-800 people across both studios, though this has not been confirmed in official material. To be confirmed.

Is Ananta made by the Genshin team?

No. It is a NetEase title; Genshin Impact is a HoYoverse product. The two are unrelated.

What was Ananta called before?

Project Mugen, until the November 2024 rebrand.