Fans have unearthed footage regarding a potential cancelled expansion of the hit video game 'Cyberpunk 2077' in an obscure YouTube video discovered by a Reddit user who made a post to spread awareness of its existence.
The video featured assets from the game's files that pointed towards a colony on the Moon where the expansion is reportedly set. This would have likely been developer CD Projekt Red's second downloadable content (DLC) release for the sci-fi videogame after their massively successful 'Phantom Liberty' DLC released in 2023.
A DLC is an expansion released for a video game which typically contains new gameplay features, items, clothing, settings and storylines. Similar to a spin-off film based on a movie or short stories building upon the same world and characters as the novel.
They are not full fledged sequels but tend to act as a way for developers to build upon their original game in new ways.
The espionage-focused political thriller expansion was reported by the developer to be the only DLC the game would have, opting instead to start work on the fourth installment of their flagship high fantasy franchise 'The Witcher'.
"So I wanted to raise awareness about this Cut DLC, cause it seems like a lot of work was put into it and it ended up being thrown straight into the garbage bin," the user wrote in their post.
Below is the video that they shared, exhibiting various discarded game assets that did not make it into the final release:
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What Was Discovered
Fans found out that the expansion would be likely set on the lunar colony of Tycho, a far cry from the original game's setting in the neon city state 'Night City' which was located on earth. This would have been a huge leap from 'Phantom Liberty' as that DLC was set in 'Dogtown' a walled off independent part of Night City ruled by a militia similar to John Carpenter's film Escape from New York.
Looking through the files, the user who made the post noted that there would have likely been a major boss fight (a fight sequence with a unique and powerful enemy) set in a new location named the 'North Harbor Area'.
Fans also theorised that the game would feature a 'mass driver' which is a futuristic rocket sled in the game's universe used to slingshot space capsules into orbit.
Fans said that assets from the cut DLC were used for scenes from the anime adaptation of the game titled 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners'
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Another notable detail that the user pointed towards was the use of discarded assets from the game in the prequel anime series, 'Cyberpunk Edgerunners', which takes place a year before the game's main storyline following a different set of characters. These include a Moon rover driven by the character Lucy in a virtual reality sequence in the story and the backdrop of a Moon colony also used in the same sequence.
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Both of these assets were seen in the video, lending more authenticity to the discovery.
A similar leak was also put out on the website 4chan in 2024, consisting of still images that hinted towards a DLC set on the Moon.
When the Creative Director of the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, Igor Sazynski was asked on social media whether this expansion would have been better than Phantom Liberty, he replied, "Will the next season of your favourite series be better or worse than the current one? In other words, who knows, it depends on so many things."
Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the hit table-top roleplaying game Cyberpunk, which was in turn inspired by the film 'Blade Runner' and cyberpunk literature. It was released in 2020 and is set in a dystopian future with corporations more powerful than nations and a world where it is cheaper for humans to replace their organs and body parts with high tech cyberware than it is to afford a house.
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