Alright folks, let's talk about the ghost in the machine, the one that got away from Night City. We all know the wild ride that was Cyberpunk 2077's launch. It's 2026 now, and looking back, it's honestly a miracle we got Phantom Liberty at all. That DLC basically performed a full-system reboot on the game's reputation, but man, the cost was astronomical. CD Projekt Red poured millions—and I mean millions—into fixing the base game, adding new features, and trying to make things right with the community. It's no wonder, at least in my opinion, that Phantom Liberty ended up being the one and only major expansion. The resources needed to salvage Night City were just too massive.
All that firefighting meant other plans got scrapped. And one of those plans? A trip to the freaking moon.
The Lunar Dream That Never Landed
So, back in 2021, the infamous CD Projekt Red hack spilled the beans on a ton of internal stuff. Buried in that data were whispers of a DLC set on Cyberpunk's version of the moon. Not our boring, gray rock, but a fully colonized, corporate-owned lunar playground. Think Dogtown, but with zero-G and a way better view of Earth.
Details were super fuzzy because it was probably just in the early concept phase. But the idea was there: a moon level split into different zones. It makes you wonder, right? Were they planning two smaller expansions before deciding to go all-in on one big, polished story with Phantom Liberty? We'll never know for sure, but the logic checks out.
Why the Moon DLC Makes So Much Sense
Here's the kicker—this wasn't some random, out-of-left-field idea. The moon is already baked into Cyberpunk 2077's lore!
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Corporate Paradise: In this universe, the moon isn't just a rock; it's prime real estate owned by mega-corps. It's the ultimate symbol of wealth and power, far removed from the grime of Night City.
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The Perfect Launchpad: Remember "The Sun" ending? Where V, now a Night City legend, gets on a spaceship headed for one last, epic heist on the Crystal Palace casino? That spaceship is going to the moon! This ending literally sets the stage for a moon-based adventure. It could have been the perfect narrative bridge into the DLC.
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Edgerunners Connection: Even the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners featured the moon prominently. This feels like a creative echo, a leftover piece of a bigger plan that never came to be. Maybe the writers and artists just loved the idea too much to let it go completely.
It's the classic "what if" that stings the most. A heist on a lunar corporate colony sounds like peak Cyberpunk.
Project Orion: A Second Chance for Lunar Heists?
Okay, so the moon DLC for 2077 is dead. CDPR has never officially confirmed the leaks, but let's be real—where there's smoke, there's usually a smoldering data server. The real question now is: Could these ideas find new life in Project Orion, the official sequel?
I think there's a solid chance, and here's why:
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Canon Ending Theory: What if CD Projekt Red decides that "The Sun" is the canon ending for V's story? Project Orion could literally start with or revolve around the aftermath of that Crystal Palace heist. We might not play as V, but we could certainly explore the consequences of their final job in a lunar setting.
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A Fresh Canvas: Project Orion is a clean slate. They can take all those cool moon colony concepts—the zones, the corporate intrigue, the unique low-gravity gameplay possibilities—and build them properly from the ground up, without the technical debt and rushed deadlines of the first game.
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Full Circle Moment: It would be a poetic way to close the loop. The expansion that was sacrificed to save the original game finally gets its day in the sun (or rather, the light of Earth from the lunar surface).
The Legacy of a "What If"
| Aspect | Cyberpunk 2077 Reality | The "What If" Moon DLC |
|---|---|---|
| Post-Launch Focus | Fixing the base game, then Phantom Liberty | Two planned expansions, potentially including the moon |
| Resource Allocation | Massive investment in patches and fixes | Resources split between fixes and new content |
| End Result | One stellar, focused expansion | Possibly two smaller, more scattered stories |
Looking at this table, it's hard to say if we truly lost out. Phantom Liberty gave us Idris Elba as Solomon Reed, the incredible zone of Dogtown, and a spy-thriller story that's arguably one of the best in the game. A moon DLC might have been amazing, but it could have also stretched the devs too thin, leading to another rocky launch.
In the end, the lost moon DLC is a fascinating footnote in Cyberpunk 2077's history. It represents a path not taken, a vision altered by necessity. But in the world of tech and corpo schemes, ideas never really die—they just get archived, waiting for the right moment to be rebooted. So, keep your eyes on the sky, chooms. The moon might just be a future download away. 🚀🌕