CD Projekt Red has just dropped yet another insane tweet advertising Shibuya, Tokyo, lit up with neon; really?? Someone just copy-pasted Night City into real life. The official Cyberpunk 2077 account posted a video of that iconic Tokyo district with a caption that read: “Shibuya, Tokyo. Lit up with neon — straight from the streets of Night City,” and, well, guess what? They actually are not wrong. The real city looks quite a lot like the Cyberpunk 2077 art style, which makes me wonder if the developers wandered around Japan for some doing research.
What was I saying? Oh, right. The immediate responses were as scattered as one could expect. The user WolfSNK came out and recited the cyberpunk-sounding line, “Never fade away.” Then things started getting messier while William_BroBrine chimed in with “Thats got to be some expensive marketing,” which, needless to say, is probably true. MrPaladin followed that up with a more sarcastic response in the spirit of classic gamer banter, “They learned nothing.”
Of course, some of the players were digging their own holes. MethSilky said, “That settles it. Cyberpunk 2 is in Neo Tokyo,” which is…maybe?? That would be pretty nova. Baloo, however, goes way off-topic by saying that actually the very first depiction of Night City in Gibson’s Neuromancer was based on the industrial south outskirts of Tokyo anyways, so it’s basically a full-circle moment.
Requests from the community are flooding in – everyone wants console mods, third-person mode, and, of course, more DLC! CyberDailygame directly asked, “Dlc incoming right?”; something I believe we’re all dying to find out. Whereas raysan2021 is out there asking for “Wanting an expansion on the Moon please,” which would be super braindance but absolutely not going to happen any time soon.
One of my favorite things is just how many people are in Tokyo right this moment chiming into that tweet. Samurai_manny released that he was “Actually there right now” with a picture, then vicam33 said, “I was there earlier today myself,” and an online gathering of gamers is formed through real-world locations that look like the game. Community bonding like this is one of many reasons why I cherish cyberpunk so much.
The entire thing is just so… uncanny. The vibe from the video CDPR released just completely detaches one from their memory of walking through Japantown within Night City. Tall buildings covered in neon ads; crowded streets; an overwhelming feeling of being in a massive futuristic metropolis. It should come as no surprise, really, that Cyberpunk 2077 maintained such a strong relevance even after several years from launch-cyber_afterlife commented: “I absolutely love the strong activity about CP after these years. It feels new every time,” and they are definitely not wrong. The game just keeps finding ways to stay relevant.
That’s some real technical discussion following: Cyberpunk Samurai had to point out, “neon? its lit up with lights. idk if they’re neon. some of them maybe. but most are just led prob.” which … okay technically correct but come on man, it’s about the aesthetic not the actual lighting technology.
Still, the love stays thick for the game. DavvySquaredxO jumped in: “This is one of my favorite games ever made. I had to pick up the switch 2 version, and it runs like a dream.” That restores some hope considering the, well, rocky launch carpet we all will remember. Marian Ghena kept it succinct with “Night City ❤️,” which really just means the same thing.
Interesting how this one tweet set off this whole can of worms regarding the direction of the franchise. If people are speculating about Cyberpunk 2 being set in Neo Tokyo, requesting moon expansions, and just generally excited about the world, that says the Cyberpunk 2077 community is alive and kicking. Since that catastrophic launch, the game has come a hell of a way, and now we’re comparing real-world locations to in-game ones. That, ladies and gentlemen, is some fine world-building.
The bottom line is that with the real neon or LED lights, the console mods happening or not, and the next game in Neo Tokyo or somewhere else-people are still conversing about Cyberpunk 2077 after all of these years, discussing real places that look like the game and bringing them together a.k.a. the community. Looking at it from a developer’s perspective, they pretty much made Shibuya look like a piece of Night City by shaping its aesthetics around the game. I think it’s time I got on reinstalling Cyberpunk 2077 and fleshing out my Photo Mode portfolio a bit more.
