A recent leak that surfaced on social media hints at the possibility Cyberpunk 2077 could have had an expansion that was set on the Moon, complete with an off-map experience around the size of Night City (excluding the Badlands) itself.
The leak that surfaced on June 15 shows us a scrapped expansion set on the Moon. The leaks consist of images of a lunar base along with maps and file data for what would have been an off-map expansion. The Moon, according to lore from the Cyberpunk 2077 wiki, is heavily colonized and dotted with corpo-run cities that mine resources with a population of around 58,000 people, which would have presented a unique location that is vastly different from the bustling Night City on Earth.
According to the leak, the Moon was originally planned for the base game, and developers CD Projekt RED envisioned players venturing beyond Night City but was cut during development due to how ambitious it seemed at the time. Instead, the developers opted to double down on polishing the Night City experience with Phantom Liberty’s release.
Cyberpunk 2077’s story is one of redemption. Launched in a laughable state in Dec. 2020 with a maelstrom of bugs and glitches, the game went from a much-anticipated title to breaking fans’ hearts all around the world. Yet it clawed its way back with some major updates, the Phantom Liberty DLC and a critically acclaimed Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime adaptation.
Sadly, with Cyberpunk 2077’s development officially over, it looks as though the Moon is still out of reach. In a June 15 Reddit post discussing the leaks, we see fans sharing a mix of emotions, upset about the loss of a potential lunar adventure, while still understanding the developer’s constraints. I’m going to guess they just ran out of time, they wanted to [add] a lot to the project. They spent way more time fixing the original release then [sic] they wanted to,” one said.
Many fans hope to see the expansion implemented in the upcoming sequel codenamed “Project Orion.” Details about Project Orion are scarce, but the possibility of exploring lunar colonies in a future Cyberpunk title remains tantalizing.
While we might have a long wait before exploring the Moon in the Cyberpunk universe, the leak offers a fascinating look at what could have been.
