NetEase launches Cyber Hunter, a sci-fi battle royale on iOS and Android

Battle royale is everywhere. Game investor and former Microsoft gaming bigwig Eric Fries joked Wednesday during our GamesBeat Summit that he got through the Game Developers Conference without a single battle royale pitch.

But we haven’t seen many sci-fi takes on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or Fortnite. NetEase could see Cyber Hunter stand out with its futuristic gear, parkour movement, and laser beams. The Chinese company is launching the free-to-play battle royale game today on iOS and Android worldwide (well, expect China, though it plans to bring it there at some point). Netease already has the thriving Rules of Survival, one of the five most popular battle royales on mobile, and it’s hoping Cyber Hunter can carve out a niche in the ultra-competitive market where the top five games have a combined 908 million downloads (stats from analyst firm Sensor Tower).