Cyberpunk 2077: Release, Setting, Updates and What to Play First

Timeline#

1. 2012Cyberpunk 2077 is announced.
2. June 2018The E3 2018 trailer lands. The game wins over one hundred awards at the show.
3. Dec 10, 2020Launch on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Stadia, after three delays from April 16, 2020.
4. Dec 2020Sony pulls the game from the PlayStation Store. It returns in June 2021.
5. Feb 15, 2022PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions release.
6. Sep 2022Patch 1.6 and the Edgerunners anime arrive and the player count surges.
7. Sep 21, 2023Update 2.0 rebuilds the perk tree and core systems.
8. Sep 26, 2023Phantom Liberty releases.
9. Dec 5, 2023Update 2.1 and the Ultimate Edition.
10. 2025Switch 2 version on June 5, macOS on July 17.
11. Oct 22, 2026Update 2.5 ships alongside Edgerunners 2.

What the game is#

Cyberpunk 2077 is built on Mike Pondsmith's tabletop Cyberpunk games, and it is open world. Night City is split into seven regions: City Center, Watson, Westbrook, Heywood, Pacifica, Santo Domingo and, with the expansion, Dogtown. The Badlands outside the city can be explored too.

You play first person, with third person only in vehicles and a few story moments. Build is open: Netrunner (hacking) and Solo (combat) are the two main styles, and the game can be finished without killing anyone except robots.

Setting and V#

The game takes place in 2077 in Night City, an independent city-state between North and South California. Johnny Silverhand, the rockerboy played by Keanu Reeves, died in 2023 in an assault on Arasaka Tower. His engram, a digitized copy of his mind, survives on a chip.

V is a freelance mercenary whose voice, face and body you choose. Gavin Drea voices male V (Vincent) and Cherami Leigh voices female V (Valerie). The chip, called the Relic, ends up in V's head and starts overwriting them with Johnny. Think of it as the worst roommate situation in Night City. The full plot is on our Cyberpunk 2077 story page.

Lifepaths#

You pick one of three: Nomad, Street Kid or Corpo. It sets your starting district, your prologue mission and your first outfit. It does not give you better stats or perks, but it adds dialogue options for the rest of the game.

All three prologues end the same way: you are partnered with Jackie Welles in Night City. Our lifepaths page covers each opening. Opinion: the lifepath is flavor, so choose the one you want to roleplay, not the one you think is optimal.

The launch, and the rebuild#

The game was delayed three times, from April 16 to September 17, then November 19, then December 10, 2020. It shipped with bugs and performance problems, worst on PS4 and Xbox One. Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store from December 2020 to June 2021, and CD Projekt faced investigations and class-action suits over its perceived attempts to downplay the technical problems before release. Those were cleared with a US$1.85 million settlement.

The fix was slow. Patch 1.6 in September 2022 added Edgerunners-themed content, and the anime's release the same month sent the PC player count to levels not seen since launch. Update 2.0 on September 21, 2023 reworked the perk tree and core systems days before Phantom Liberty. Update 2.1 on December 5, 2023 added a working Metro and more scenes with your romance partner. Update 2.2 at the end of 2024 put Johnny in the passenger seat when you drive.

Update 2.5 landed on October 22, 2026, two days after Edgerunners 2 premiered. The patch brings a side quest that acts as a prequel to the anime, a perk for dual-wielding pistols and similar weapons, and console mod support.

Where it fits in the timeline#

Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk RED are the tabletop games the setting comes from. Edgerunners is a standalone tie-in that runs from 2075 to 2076, the year before the game. Edgerunners 2 is set in 2078, after it.

Canon has layers, and the tabletop and the video game do not always agree, so we say which one we mean. See our Cyberpunk timeline page for the full run from 2013 onward.

Fixer's notes: what to play first#

Opinion: buy the Ultimate Edition, which bundles Phantom Liberty, and play the base story first. The expansion adds a new ending to the base game, so you get the full menu on one save. See our Phantom Liberty page for what you get.

Pick a lifepath you like and do not agonize. Panam, Judy, River and Kerry each have a romance path, and who you can romance depends on your body type and voice, so choose V's body with that in mind. Our romance options page has the details.

Watching Edgerunners first is optional. Skip it if you hate sad things, watch it if you want to know why people in this city flinch at the word Sandevistan.

Stuck on a lifepath, a romance or a quest? The Cyberpunk 2077 FAQ answers the questions players ask most.

For the game's soundtrack and the bands behind it, see cyberpunk music.