ANANTA is developed by Naked Rain and published by NetEase Games. The two names share the signature on the official press release datelined Hangzhou, China on August 25, 2026, which confirmed a January 15, 2027 global launch and opened pre-registration (Games Press wire copy, pulled directly by our editors). The link one sees written less often is the parent structure: in its gamescom 2026 launch-date report, Japanese outlet 4Gamer described the developer as “NAKED RAIN, Thunder Fire Studio’s new studio” — a studio newly founded under NetEase’s Thunder Fire banner. This article pins that whole chain down, then lists what it unlocked.
1. Three quotable sources, one chain
- Official press release (dateline Hangzhou, Aug 25, 2026; published Aug 26): signed “NetEase Games and Naked Rain today announced…”, confirming the January 15, 2027 launch on official PC client / Steam / PS5 / iOS / Android, a free-to-play model, pre-registration already at 17M+ across 110 countries and regions, the second major city named Chongxiao, and city design inspired by Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tokyo (mirrored on our game-info page).
- 4Gamer launch-date report (2026-08-26 03:38): the developer appears as “Thunder Fire Studio の新スタジオ・NAKED RAIN”, and the setting as “新啓と重霄・凌雲の二都市” — the primary Japanese source behind our timeline node: gamescom launch date.
- 4Gamer gamescom hands-on interview (2026-09-02 07:00): two Naked Rain staff guided the demo; the article states “Naked Rain は中国・杭州とカナダ・モントリオールにスタジオを構えており” — studios in Hangzhou, China and Montreal, Canada — and partly credits that split footprint for Chongxiao’s “Hangzhou melted into Shanghai” look.
Short version: publishing is NetEase Games, development is Naked Rain (a Thunder Fire offshoot, with Hangzhou + Montreal bases). That is now a page of its own: our Naked Rain glossary entry.
2. Our audit: the question 41 glossary entries never answered
A walkthrough site’s real product is a structured archive you can click through, not leaks. Live count from our own content and data files:
- Of the previous 41 glossary terms, not one answered “who develops this game” — it lived only inside blog prose. Today adds term #42, Naked Rain, plus a card in the cheat-sheet tool: 40 cards now, i.e. 40 of 42 terms covered (95.2%). The two exceptions (Shi Ye and Yinglong) are character-name terms that, per a decision we made on 2026-09-18, deliberately stay on character pages rather than the cheat sheet.
- All 6 characters the official site currently names, as reported by 4Gamer (Captain, Shiye, Taffy, Richie, Yinglong, Seymour), are profiled here — 6 of 6: Captain, Shi Ye, Taffy, Rich, Yinglong, Seymour. Four of them already have four-language guides (Captain, Taffy, Rich, Seymour); for Shi Ye and Yinglong we refuse to publish a “should I build them” guide because their combat roles are unconfirmed. Better one page short than one invented.
- Our character encyclopedia holds 15 profiles — above the “already more than 10 announced” cumulative line the Japanese coverage used — plus 14 weapons, 20 items, 7 factions, 2 cities and 6 documented Volume 1 chapters.
3. Three things the hands-on confirmed — and one thing it did not
- Character acquisition: 4Gamer’s wording is “キャラクターはガチャではなく、全員が配布される” — no character gacha, everyone distributed. That matches our Character Acquisition term and the monetization breakdown.
- City naming and reading: “新啓と重霄・凌雲” as the paired cities. Today’s Chongxiao page gained a new section carrying the Japanese furigana “ちょうしょう” plus the lakeside tea fields, hand-roasted tea and rice-cake-pounding detail; the Nova City page is unchanged.
- Combat outline: kung-fu-based action where, beyond your own gear, you can grab surrounding objects and disarm enemies, combine evade/guard/counter into a personal style, and use a telekinesis system — see “Five Combat Mechanics”.
- What is not fact: the reporter’s landmark guesses (Jing’an Temple, Leifeng Pagoda, Oriental Pearl) are his own on-site reading, never confirmed item by item by the developer. We keep that class of statement visually separated from official wording on the page.
4. A small finding: three Japanese spellings differ from ours
| 4Gamer’s spelling | Our Japanese page | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| タフィー | タフィ | Keep our spelling, derived from official English name Taffy |
| リキ | リッチ | Same (official English name Richie) |
| セモア | シーモア | Same (official English name Seymour) |
| 瓔瓏 | 璎瓏 | Font-variant difference, not a translation split |
Read it calmly: nobody is wrong yet — the official Japanese orthography simply isn’t fixed. We anchor on the official English names and will sync if the Japanese site standardises.
FAQ
Who is developing ANANTA?
Naked Rain. In its gamescom 2026 report, 4Gamer called the studio “NAKED RAIN, Thunder Fire Studio’s new studio” — i.e. newly founded under NetEase’s Thunder Fire banner — while the press release is co-signed “NetEase Games and Naked Rain”. Details on our Naked Rain entry.
Who publishes ANANTA, and how do NetEase and Naked Rain divide the work?
NetEase Games publishes and Naked Rain develops; the two are separately signed in official copy, which lets you attribute statements correctly. The internal division of labour has never been spelled out by the developer.
Where is Naked Rain’s studio located?
Per 4Gamer’s September 2, 2026 gamescom interview, Naked Rain has bases in Hangzhou, China and Montreal, Canada — the same piece links that split footprint to Chongxiao’s blended Hangzhou/Shanghai look.
How big is the ANANTA development team?
Our game-info page preserves the early media figure of “roughly 800 people” with its provenance marked, but the number was never put out under the studio’s own signature, and no official headcount exists — so we treat it as to be confirmed, not as fact.
Do you have to pull for characters? Which six does the official site name?
No. The hands-on article states characters are not gacha but distributed to everyone. The six currently named on the official site are Captain, Shi Ye, Taffy, Rich, Yinglong and Seymour — all six profiled in our encyclopedia, four with four-language guides and two deliberately left unwritten.
How many cities does ANANTA launch with, and how is Chongxiao read?
Two at launch: Nova City and Chongxiao (furigana “ちょうしょう” in Japanese coverage). The press release separately says the game’s cities draw inspiration from Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tokyo — see the Chongxiao and Nova City profiles.
Is it true that year one adds 3 story chapters and 4 new cities?
We could not verify it today, so please don’t treat it as fact. That claim surfaced on a single secondary page; our direct fetch timed out and no cross-checkable original source exists, so it is filed as “to be confirmed”. The only content-scale lines with sources are 100+ hours per city and at least seven years of support (see “Four Content-Scale Numbers”).
Is there a producer list or voice-actor cast for ANANTA?
No voice-actor roster has been announced, and producer attributions come from second-hand interviews; our older voice-cast roundup keeps those early lines with their uncertainty marked. Both remain to be confirmed.
What we checked before publishing
- Verified by direct fetch: Games Press official press release (launch date, platforms, pre-registration scale, Chongxiao, inspiration cities); two 4Gamer pieces (Aug 26 launch-date report; Sep 2 gamescom hands-on) — studio lineage, two-city footprint, the six named characters, “distributed, not gacha”, the city reading and the combat outline all come from those texts.
- Failed verification: games.gg’s “seven years of support / first year: 3 chapters + 4 cities” article (120-second timeout, single source) — kept out of the fact pool and labelled unconfirmed.
- Live site counts: 42 glossary terms (1 added today), 40 cheat-sheet cards, 15 character profiles, 12 four-language character guides, 14 weapons, 20 items, 7 factions, 2 cities, 6 story chapters, 11 timeline nodes, 12 site tools.
- Shipped alongside this post: the new four-language Naked Rain term plus its cheat-sheet card; a gamescom-hands-on section added to all four Chongxiao language pages; and the developer field on the game-info page rewritten in four languages with its update date refreshed.