Ananta is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious free-to-play open-world games in development, and its developers have now given us a much better idea of just how much content they are trying to squeeze into its massive cities.
In a recent interview with AUTOMATON, a NetEase representative said Ananta is being built with enough content for players to potentially spend at least 100 hours exploring each individual city.
When specifically asked whether that 100-hour figure applied to each city rather than the game as a whole, the developer confirmed that it did.
That is a huge claim considering Ananta has already revealed two major open-world locations.
Players will be able to explore Nova City alongside Chongxiao, with the two locations designed as separate but connected cities that players will travel between throughout the story.
Chongxiao takes inspiration from Chinese cities including Shanghai and Hangzhou, while Nova City draws inspiration from East Asian urban environments. The developers have also suggested that the two locations will offer very different environments, districts and lifestyles to discover.
However, the 100-hour figure should not be confused with the length of Ananta’s main storyline.
The developer specifically discussed the amount of time players could spend exploring and experiencing everything built into each city, rather than suggesting that the game contains a 200-hour campaign.
That distinction is important because Ananta is being designed around much more than simply completing missions.
Previous developer comments have described the game as an open-world urban RPG where players can spend time shopping, eating at restaurants, listening to live music, travelling around by car or boat and exploring countless districts throughout its cities.
Producer Ash Qi previously told TechRadar that the team wants Ananta to become the biggest open-world game in the free-to-play space, with the developers attempting to include many of the activities players might expect to find in a modern city.
Traversal also looks like it will play a major part in exploration.
Alongside traditional vehicles such as cars, motorcycles and trucks, players will be able to use helicopters, wingsuits and swinging mechanics to move around the world. A flying car has even appeared in footage from Chongxiao.
The game will also mix open-world exploration with combat, missions and character-specific gameplay.
Players take on the role of an elite investigator working for the A.C.D., while meeting numerous playable characters who have their own professions and lives within the cities.
Rather unusually for a major free-to-play RPG, Ananta will also avoid the traditional character gacha system.
NetEase says playable characters will instead be unlocked for free as players progress through the story, with monetisation primarily coming from cosmetic purchases such as outfits.
Ananta is currently scheduled to launch on January 15, 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5, iOS and Android.
Whether players genuinely end up spending 100 hours in each city will obviously depend heavily on how much optional content ultimately makes it into the finished game, but it gives us a much clearer picture of the scale NetEase and developer Naked Rain are aiming for.
If the team can actually fill two enormous cities with enough meaningful activities and exploration to support hundreds of hours of playtime, Ananta could end up being considerably larger than many players originally expected.