Where does Cyberpunk 2077 take place?

As fictional stories often do, Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in a city that doesn’t exist in the real world. Night City was created for the original tabletop game, and it’s where CD Projekt Red decided to set their game, too. But there’s quite a bit more to it than that.

What is Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City?

Night City is a fictional mega city located between Los Angeles and San Francisco in what we know as California. However, in the fictional world of Cyberpunk, the timeline splits from our own in 1990, so it’s not like California as we know it.

In the Cyberpunk timeline, the US is hobbled economically after a war in Central America, the Soviet Union never collapsed, and Japan is one of the world’s superpowers. In 2077, we can clearly see these differences represented in Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City, with the lawlessness, Japanese influence, and wide economic disparity between people.

In the Free State of North California, Night City resides in an area controlled by corporations and outside of the wider laws of the country. That makes it an exceedingly dangerous place to be, hence all the guns, crime, and gang violence that make the game so fun.

As Cyberpunk started out as a tabletop role-playing game, the universe is remarkably fleshed out. That’s what made it a good candidate for an open world video game. The subsequent anime – Cyberpunk: Edgerunners – was also praised for its worldbuilding, with Night City playing a huge role in the show.

Now, with the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty on the horizon, it’s a great time to see what Night City is all about.