Cyberpunk 2077 players commemorate the most important day in the game's history

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The cyberpunk RPG's story wouldn't have happened without one fateful event

Cyberpunk 2077 Johnny Silverhand
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

Cyberpunk 2077 players came together to celebrate a historic day in the history of Night City.

August 20, 2023, marks one of the most significant events in the history of towering city, and the events preceding Cyberpunk 2077. It's on this date that Johnny Silverhand and company detonate a nuclear bomb in Arasaka Tower, in an attempt to destroy the company's databanks and erase their Soulkiller 3.0 project from existence. 

If you've played Cyberpunk 2077, you know how the event goes: the bomb goes off, but Adam Smasher slays Johnny during the assault. Silverhand's death neatly sets the stage for Cyberpunk 2077's story at large, where Johnny is revived of sorts in protagonist V's body, and the end of the story features a similar assault on Arasaka Tower.

It's this major event that Cyberpunk 2077 fans celebrated yesterday, August 20. Despite the fact that, according to a late-game quest in Cyberpunk 2077, over 4,000 people died in the detonation, it's a reason for celebration among fans of CD Projekt's game, as a gigantic middle finger to Arasaka during the Fourth Corporate War.

Even CD Projekt Red's own developers are getting in on the celebration, as seen below with former Cyberpunk 2077 lead Patrick K. Mills. Without yesterday's events in Night City, the story of Cyberpunk 2077 would never happen, as Silverhand would never have been slotted into the head of V, and the Soulkiller 3.0 project would never have been killed.

By the time Johnny and V assault Arasaka Tower at the end of Cyberpunk 2077, it's the third time there's been an assault on the company HQ, weirdly enough. Johnny's attempt predates everything, and then comes the climactic finale of Edgerunners at Arasaka Tower, before V's showdown with Adam Smasher. 

Maybe Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty might shed some more light on events before the main game. The new expansion is arriving next month on September 26, and we'll be journeying into a new area of Night City with Edris Elba's Solomon Reed, a US government agent. 

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty's director will head up the base game's sequel, which isn't yet in development at CD Projekt.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.