Pawprint Studio’s creature-catching open-world RPG Aniimo has reached its global launch window, and the studio marked it with a live-action trailer that swaps rendered gameplay for real hikers, real city streets, and CG creatures dropped into both. The spot ends on the only part most players care about right now, which is the release schedule.
Quick answer: Aniimo launches globally on September 16 on PC and console, with mobile following on September 23. Pre-download is already open on PC and console.
Aniimo launch dates by platform
The release is split into two waves a week apart. Everything on PC and console goes live together, then the phone versions arrive.
| Platform | Storefront | Global launch |
|---|---|---|
| PC | Steam, Epic Games Store, Windows | September 16, 2026 |
| PlayStation 5 | PlayStation Store | September 16, 2026 |
| Xbox | Xbox | September 16, 2026 |
| iPhone and iPad | App Store | September 23, 2026 |
| Android | Google Play | September 23, 2026 |
The Xbox side of the game has been shown running under Xbox Play Anywhere, covering Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud. That means the Xbox entry is not limited to the console box itself.
Pre-download applies to the PC and console builds only. The mobile versions are tied to their own September 23 date and are not part of that early install window.
Price and content rating
Aniimo is free-to-play, so the install is the only barrier on any of the listed storefronts. It carries an ESRB rating of Teen, with content descriptors for Fantasy Violence and Language.
What the live-action trailer actually shows
The trailer opens on a city skyline at sunrise with a Pawprint Studio card, then follows ordinary people who start noticing creatures where they should not be. Hikers spot small purple creatures on rocks by a stream. Two panda-like creatures play string instruments next to running water. A woman jogging through a modern city block looks up at woolly, sheep-shaped clouds drifting past office towers.
From there it gets to the point of the game. Campers summon glowing polygonal capture devices in their hands and throw them at creatures in a meadow, and a group in an off-road vehicle drives into a red rock canyon to face a huge horned dragon on a cliff edge and throw a capture device at it.
The middle stretch is the pitch behind the title. A retro home-video montage shows kids catching beetles, butterflies, and goldfish, with the word for “catch” flashing in several languages, including 捕捉, 잡기, FANGEN, CAPTURAR, TANGKAP, จับ, and ПОЙМАТЬ. The line CATCHING JUST FEELS RIGHT lands as giant aquatic creatures with lily pad flowers on their heads rise out of a lake in front of a group of children.
It closes with dragon flight over oceans, snowy peaks, and canyons, a group sprinting across green hills and hurling their capture devices into the air together, and then the title card with the pre-download notice and the two launch dates.
How catching works in Aniimo
Catching is not a menu action. You generate a capture device in your hands and throw it, and gameplay footage has shown the same tool used on a squirrel-sized creature in the grass and on a boss-scale dragon standing on a canyon ridge.
A few specifics have been shown on screen during capture sequences:
- Multi-catches are counted live, with a CATCH x 3 readout during open-world traversal.
- A single sweeping throw on a beach swarm captured ten creatures at once.
- Capturing sheep creatures on a grassy hill triggered a SUPER LUCKY! reward screen.
- Larger targets use a triangular energy net or a capture drone rather than a thrown cube.
- Catching is folded into fights, so a capture throw often follows a companion’s attack.
Combat, mounts, and bosses
Fights run on an action system with a stagger mechanic. Landing elemental combos pops a large BREAK prompt on the target, which is when the heavy damage goes in. Players can also switch into a mechanical armored form that lands spinning strikes, and creature companions join in with their own moves, such as a squirrel rolling into enemies as a ball of fire.
Boss encounters shown so far include a colossal winged Omega dragon in a volcanic ruin, a giant avian that fills a shallow water arena with wind vortexes and lightning, and a huge floral water deity fought across moving platforms while dodging rings of projectiles. Snowy mountain fights against ice creatures and field battles against fire giants and rolling mechanized beasts fill in the space between.
Travel is handled by the creatures themselves. You can ride a winged dragon in both first-person and chase camera views across coastal cliffs, snowy peaks, and canyons, glide on an avian mount, roll around in a ball form, and drive a small off-road vehicle on the ground.
What else is in the world of Idyll
Between catching and fighting, Aniimo has shown a homestead with farming activities and a futuristic town hub complete with an animated DJ lizard on a performance stage. The biome list spans pink sand beaches, dense forests, violet meadows, snowfields, volcanic ruins, and floating islands under an aurora.
The game reached this point after a global closed beta earlier in the year, with the release date itself confirmed at gamescom 2026 before the live-action spot arrived to close out the campaign. If you are on PC, PS5 or Xbox, the install is available now and nothing is standing between you and the first throw. Phone players have a week to wait.
