Cyberpunk 2077: The Story So Far | Krishnamohan Productions

⚠️ Spoiler Warning

This article covers major lore and story events prior to and leading up to Cyberpunk 2077. If you want to experience the game fully blind, proceed with caution.

1989–2012: The Dawn of the Dark Future

Cyberpunk 2077’s timeline diverges from reality in the late 1980s:

The Gang of Four, a secret US government cabal consisting of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and DEA, takes control, prioritizing profits over people.
U.S. foreign policy in South America focuses on resource extraction, disguised as a "War on Drugs and Communism." Plagues are engineered to target cartel operations.
1993: A suitcase nuclear device detonated by Colombian cartels in Manhattan escalates global instability.
Economic collapse: U.S. market manipulation and failed wars lead to widespread homelessness and state secession. California and Texas become “Free States,” Martial Law declared.

Globally:

Asia and Europe remain comparatively stable, giving rise to the Eurodollar (€$) as the global currency.
South America recovers from imperialist exploitation.
Russia becomes kleptocratic, the Middle East suffers localized nuclear devastation.

Corporations Rise

With governments weakened, megacorps fill the power vacuum:

PetroChem, SovOil, BioTechnica, Militech, Arasaka dominate global politics and economies.
Technological innovation flourishes, especially in prosthetics, cyberware, and biomechanical integration.
Cyberwarfare, cybercrime, and morally ambiguous tech become mainstream.

1994–2012: Night City Emerges

Originally Coronado City (1994), later renamed Night City after architect Richard Night’s assassination.
Years of gang and corporate conflicts stabilize by the early 2010s.
Certain districts, like Pacifica, never fully recover, leaving parts of the city as lawless zones.

2013: Soulkiller Incident

Johnny Silverhand, veteran of the Central American wars, loses his arm and becomes cyber-augmented.
His girlfriend Alt Cunningham, a legendary netrunner, creates the Soulkiller virus, designed to transfer consciousness into cloned bodies or digitally trap it.
Arasaka kidnaps Alt; Johnny survives and stages a public assault on Arasaka HQ.
A botched mission strands Alt in cyberspace, marking the first large-scale use of Soulkiller as a digital prison.

2021: The Fourth Corporate War

A global conflict between megacorps, primarily Arasaka vs. Militech, escalates from a corporate hostile takeover.
The war cripples international trade and orbital colonies retaliate by hurling objects at Earth.
Rache Bartmoss’s assassination unleashes the DataKrash virus, destroying nearly 80% of the Net.

2023: Night City Holocaust

Night City becomes ground zero during the Fourth Corporate War.
Both Arasaka and Militech hold strongholds; chaos reigns in absence of a national government.
A nuclear device detonates at Arasaka HQ, killing thousands and flooding parts of the inner city.
The U.S. and Japanese governments intervene; Arasaka is restricted from North America.

2024–2070: Reconstruction and Reunification

Era known as “The Time of the Red”, due to lingering radioactive fallout turning skies red.
Governments regain partial control; corporations must operate with more discretion.
Cyberware development slows due to Net collapse, but eventually resumes as infrastructure is rebuilt via regional and corporate hubs.
Netwatch establishes The Blackwall, separating the Old Net from the new.
Night City is reconstructed largely through Nomad supply chains and corporate philanthropy.
By 2070, a treaty between the New United States and remaining Free States designates Night City as an “international free city”, independent from national laws.

🌆 Summary

From the late 1980s collapse of the U.S. to the nuclear devastation of 2023 and subsequent reconstruction, the Cyberpunk universe is shaped by corporate power, technological innovation, and global conflict. Night City rises as a central hub for cybernetic culture, lawlessness, and megacorporate influence—a city ready to be explored in 2077.

“We've managed to build the city from scratch, screw it up by turning it into a playground for gangs and corporations, blow up City Center with a genuine nuke, almost kick out the corpos, rebuild the city without government aid, avoid war with the NUSA, and, finally, turn the city back into a playground for gangs and corpos.”
— Liam Allen, Investigative Journalist