Cyberpunk 2077 ads teased Chicago for years and after comments from the OG TTRPG's creator, we might also know when the sequel takes place: "Coming in 2080"

CD Projekt Red hasn't said much about its neon-shrouded dystopian sequel Cyberpunk 2 - only officially referred to as Project Orion - but fans are theorizing over clues that have been in the game since launch after fresh comments from Cyberpunk's OG creator.

Earlier this week, Mike Pondsmith, creator of the tabletop RPG that the games are based on, confirmed the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel goes beyond Night City after he visited CDPR.

"Night City's still there," Pondsmith said at this week's Digital Dragons conference. "But I remember looking at it and going 'yeah, I understand the feel that you're going for in this, and this really does work.' It doesn't feel like Blade Runner. It feels more like Chicago gone wrong. I said 'yeah, I can see this working.'"

Some fans have now noticed an in-game Cyberpunk 2077 ad promoting "travel from Chicago to Night City in under three hours" has been there pretty much since the game crawled to release. The earliest Reddit post I found about the ad was shared five whole years ago, and speculated Chicago could be DLC.

Cyberpunk Orion in 2080??? from r/cyberpunkgame

What's more interesting is the slogan: "Worry-free. Coming in 2080," which is potentially a teaser of the sequel's three-year time jump. And as some fans also pointed out, the Phantom Liberty epilogue stretches to 2079, so a 2080-set game is entirely plausible.

Making the setting even more juicy is a readable shard that mentions how a "leading AI analytics software predicts another hot war will likely break out by 2080." What better time to set the sequel than the year when Militech and Arasaka are back at each other's necks, eh?

"Judging by the recent comments Mike Pondsmith made, they were clearly planning years ahead, from the very beginning," one fan theorized in the subreddit's comments. Another joked that "2080 actually signifies the release date of the game," not the year it takes place in.

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