Cyberpunk 2077: Scrapped Moon DLC Revealed

Cyberpunk 2077 fans are finding out how close they were to walking on the moon. Sources say that after Phantom Liberty, developer CD Projekt Red planned a major second expansion, but it was ultimately shelved. It was said that this DLC would take players far beyond Night City, adding a huge lunar colony with combat in low gravity and cyberware designed specifically for space.

People were excited about the idea alone, especially since the moon has been teased in various parts of the game, such as billboards in Night City and anime tie-ins. However, players will have to wait for the sequel to see it come to life.

The canceled expansion wasn't just a big setting. It promised completely new ways to play and environments that would take the series in big new directions. Imagine casinos lit by neon lights floating above Earth, huge corporate resorts, and combat that doesn't use gravity.

This was like nothing players had seen in the series before. However, it is said that CD Projekt Red decided not to move forward because they feared using old themes and assets that might not live up to the sky-high standards set by Phantom Liberty. The studio didn't rush to make a moon-themed add-on; instead, they put their resources into making the next full game.

This gave the creative team time to start from scratch and make something new.

Some technological problems also came into play. Sources say the new Cyberpunk sequel, under the code name Project Orion, is being built on Unreal Engine 5 rather than the more traditional Red Engine. The goal of this change is to make the world more complex, vertical, and reactive, without the technical problems that slowed earlier projects.

Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough launch in 2020, and it took years of patches and updates to win back players' trust. The studio seems determined to make a big impression with its next game. It didn't make sense, in the long term, to split the team to work on another expansion for an older engine.

The choice shows how carefully CD Projekt Red is handling the franchise. Instead of making quick money off of Phantom Liberty's DLC success, the studio is said to be saving its best ideas for a game that can really do them justice. Ideas like exploring the moon, fighting in zero gravity, and telling completely new stories may appear in Project Orion at some point. Still, players will experience them in a much better, more ambitious form.

People who were excited to explore a lunar colony will be let down by the scrapped DLC, but it also shows that the studio is putting quality over quick wins.

The second game will not just be a better version of Night City. It will be meant to feel more real, unpredictable, and deep than ever before. Will fans' dreams of going to the moon come true in ways they could only imagine when Project Orion finally comes out? That's the big question everyone has.