Cyberpunk Timeline: From the 1990s Collapse to Night City in 2077

Timeline#

1. 1990The First Central American War begins and Germany reunifies.
2. 1994World stock market collapse: Europe finds the US has been defrauding the market and the global economy falls overnight. Coronado City, later Night City, is founded.
3. 1996The Collapse of the United States begins, with martial law and one in four Americans homeless. The first boostergangs appear.
4. 1997The Mideast Meltdown: a nuclear exchange makes most of the Middle East uninhabitable and cuts the global fuel supply.
5. 1998Richard Night is assassinated by the Mafia on 20 September and Coronado City is renamed Night City in his honor.
6. 2000The Wasting Plague spreads across the US and Europe, and millennium cults go on a suicide and violence spree on 1 January.
7. 2001The World Sat Network is built and the framework for the Net is set up.
8. 2002Armatech-Luccessi is renamed Militech Arms International.
9. 2003The Second Central American War begins.
10. 2004The First Corporate War begins, between Euro Business Machines and Orbital Air. It ends in 2005.
11. 2005The cybermodem is invented, letting the brain interface with the Net.
12. 2007The Second Corporate War begins over drilling rights in the South China Sea, and braindances are invented. It ends in 2010 with SovOil in control of the sea.
13. 2009The Mob War begins as corporations move against the Mafia for control of Night City.
14. 2013Alt Cunningham is kidnapped by Arasaka on 12 April, and Johnny Silverhand provokes a riot to raid Arasaka Tower the next day. Alt ends up dead with her digital ghost stuck in the Net.
15. 2016The Third Corporate War begins, a fight over the Net.
16. 2020Most adventures in the Cyberpunk 2020 line are set in this year. The Carbon Plague hits Night City for two weeks.
17. 2021The Fourth Corporate War begins: IHAG goes bankrupt in early 2021, and late in the year OTEC hires Militech while CINO hires Arasaka.
18. 2022The Arasaka and Militech phase of the Fourth Corporate War goes hot. Rache Bartmoss is killed, and his dead man switch releases the DataKrash virus, which infests 78.2% of the Net.
19. 2023On 20 August a nuclear device destroys Arasaka's towers in Night City, in what RED calls the Night City Holocaust. The sky turns red for two years: the Time of the Red. Cyberpunk 2077 has Johnny Silverhand die in the assault on Arasaka Tower this year.
20. 2025The Fourth Corporate War officially ends and Arasaka is pushed back to Japan. NetWatch declares the Net inoperable.
21. 2028Power players ratify a charter and refound Night City, absorbing North Oak, Westbrook, Heywood and Pacifica.
22. 2035 to 2049First Wave cities begin Reclamation, the first megabuildings go up and Ziggurat's CitiNet data pools spread.
23. 2045The setting year of Cyberpunk RED.
24. 2053V is born (12 October). The United States becomes the New United States and David Whindam is elected its first president.
25. 2069 to 2070The Unification War: the New United States tries to re-annex the Free States. In June 2070 Arasaka breaks the siege of Night City, and Night City becomes an independent city-state.
26. 2075 to 2076The events of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, set in Night City over these two years.
27. 2076Autumn: V and Jackie Welles team up as mercenaries, the prologue of Cyberpunk 2077.
28. 2077V and Jackie steal the Relic from Yorinobu Arasaka's suite at Konpeki Plaza, and the heist goes wrong. The rest of the main story runs through the summer.
29. 2078Edgerunners 2 is set in this year.

How to read this#

The timeline below was moved forward with each edition. The 1988 game was set in 2013, Cyberpunk 2020 in 2020, and Cyberpunk RED in 2045. Cyberpunk 2077 is set in 2077. Events up to 2020 come from the 2020 edition, and later ones from RED, Cyberpunk 2077 and Edgerunners.

Canon has layers, and a few of them contradict each other. Mike Pondsmith has said the official timeline is in flux. Elements of the 1997 Firestorm books and Cyberpunk V3.0 have been retired, without saying which ones, and the V3.0 timeline is now treated as separate. Where editions disagree, the entry says which one you are reading.

The collapse, 1990 to 2000#

The 2020 edition retells the 1990s as a run of failures: wars in Central America, a stock market crash, the collapse of the United States and a nuclear exchange in the Middle East. The point of the history is to explain why governments stopped mattering and the corporations took over. It reads like a dare to the news.

Night City itself starts as Coronado City in 1994 and gets its name in 1998. The Cyberpunk 2020 page covers the edition that wrote this history down.

Corporate wars, 2004 to 2025#

There are four. The first (2004 to 2005) is Euro Business Machines against Orbital Air, and it teaches other companies that warfare is a viable business tactic. The second (2007 to 2010) is over South China Sea drilling rights. The third begins in 2016 and is fought over the Net. The fourth starts in 2021, goes hot between Arasaka and Militech in 2022, and the nuke in Night City ends the fighting in 2023.

Opinion: the first war is the one to remember. Two companies settled a business dispute with real armies, and every later boardroom took notes. Everything about Arasaka and Militech in 2077 is that lesson, grown up.

The Red years and the rebuild#

RED picks up after 2023. The sky is stained red for two years, the Net is dead, and the country runs under Elizabeth Kress. Night City is refounded in 2028 and gets districts, a council and megabuildings. By the time of Cyberpunk 2077 it is an independent city-state again, and Arasaka is its de facto ruler. The Cyberpunk RED page covers the tabletop side, and the Time of the Red has the details of that gap.

Fixer's notes: using this for a campaign#

If you run RED, set your game in 2045 and treat the Fourth Corporate War as recent history. If you want the Edgerunners era, R. Talsorian's Edgerunners Mission Kit uses the RED rules for 2077-era missions.