Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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On the first episode of 'Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Districts EXPLAINED'. I will present an overview of the most important facts regarding the birth of Night City. In a nutshell, the City was build on the early 2000s, the it suffered major destruction by a nuke by 2020s and then it took a few decades from 2040 to 2060 called the rebuild era.
For a complete timeline, make sure to check: youtu.be/W2-gpBKiR80

Night City EXPLAINED:
➡ Intro: youtu.be/r5X4EPrGgaM
➡ Watson: youtu.be/izRDklQYalw
➡ Westbrook: youtu.be/M8q9kvaCCj8
➡ City Center: youtu.be/ScU4Wir0VgI
➡ Heywood: youtu.be/Mh5UMliw7t8
➡ Santo Domingo: youtu.be/g2uK_4z_k90
➡ Pacifica: youtu.be/g2uK_4z_k90

For more Cyberpunk 2077 videos check out the following playlists:
➡ Lore Explained: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv5wnfhfz9sITNldmZGhvWiZKjgtiWcOr
➡ Technical analysis: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv5wnfhfz9sLYtmyAqHFR6trPcgsOaHQH
➡ Trailer React/Breakdown: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv5wnfhfz9sL-s3nQa8ZiI-KGhirZIDRe

Check out nightcity.io for a fully interactable map of City!
Join me on DISCORD! discord.gg/FX4Q7sU
Soundtrack by StreamBeats: streambeats.com
SFX by Commodore 1983: commodore1983.bandcamp.com
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Special Thanks to my Patreons: Trisa133 ($5), Rudolf Wolter ($1) and GWR Dirky Dirk ($1)
If you wanna join them check me out on patreon.com/coldfiregames
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The story of Night City began in 1994 with a rich entrepreneur named Richard Night. But wait, he was not a narcissist who named the city after himself we will get to that in a moment.

A few years earlier Night split off from his old partners from the construction company Halsey, Ferris and Night to set up his own company, Night International. He then initiated an ambitious new project, the design from scratch of a whole new city. For that, he bought the entire town of Morro Bay, a small, neglected settlement near the border that divides Northern and Southern California. As you can see, Morro bay sits right between San Francisco and LA. Thanks to heavy booster gangs raids the settlement was almost a ghost town, so it was a perfect spot to build something new.


Then, only four years after the initial construction had begun, tragedy struck when Richard Night was murdered by unknown assailants. By now, it is clear that he was murdered by the organized crime bosses that ran almost all the construction companies back then.

Despite this ‘small’ setback, the city construction was finished. With the void in power, the crime syndicates thrived and took over the city in a few years. Coronado City is now a haven for criminal activity. Prostitution, drug trafficking and cybertorrism became the norm.
Oh, and also, the city was ironically renamed Night City, in memory of the deceased creator of it.

After a decade of ever-increasing crime and death rates, the corporations decided to regain control of the town. Over a period of just a few days, the heads of almost every major criminal organization was separated from their bodies (quite literally sometimes).

A new city council was formed mostly all for representatives of those mega corps. And, surprisingly their first act was to empower the corporations. Giving them the power to do whatever it would be necessary ‘in the best interest of the city’ to establish peace and order within its limits.

However the so-called golden age of Night city didn’t last long. By the 2020s the Fourth Corporate War was raging havoc worldwide. But this is a story for another video. All that matters now is that this mexican stand-off ended with a tactical nuclear device exploding on the Arasaka headquarters on Night City center.

The following decade of the 2030s was all about pointing fingers and finding guilties for all this mayhem. Militech got nationalized and Arasaka was banished from operating in the USA.
By 2040, major rebuilding efforts took place. Completely abandoned by the government the city was left for its own faith. Night City is a City state after all and had near zero economical value after the nuke, so why bother right?

By the 2070s the new United States President Rosalind Myers decided to start a federal crusade to re-unify the whole country again. Night City barely managed to avoid the conflict thanks to massive military support from Arasaka. It was official now, Night City has a new owner.

Fast forwarding to 2077, Night city is officially being guarded by Arasaka, we can see that on the gameplay footage that shows nomad V trying to enter the city and being greeted by some not so friendly, heavily armed Arasaka security on SUVs.

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Special Thanks to my Patreons: Trisa133 ($5), Rudolf Wolter ($1) and GWR Dirky Dirk ($1)
If you wanna join them check me out on patreon.com/coldfiregames
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