During the latest episode of Night City Wire, CD PROJEKT RED unveiled a new cinematic trailer for their upcoming expansion, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, starring Idris Elba. Also presented during the show was an array of new information, including the changes to gameplay coming with the new expansion, new music, and the launch date for Cyberpunk 2077’s free Update 2.0.
This special episode of Night City Wire — the show centered around discussion, news, and announcements regarding Cyberpunk 2077 — heavily featured the star of Phantom Liberty, Idris Elba (Thor: Ragnarok, Luther, The Suicide Squad, The Wire). The world premiere of a brand-new trailer starring Elba — set seven years before the events of Phantom Liberty — started the show, and was followed by additional behind-the-scenes footage of the well-known actor. The audience had the opportunity to see Elba discuss his character in the expansion, secret agent Solomon Reed, in both an interview and a frame by frame analysis of the trailer itself.
What’s in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Later in the episode, more details were revealed about new elements and changes to gameplay. Game Director Gabe Amatangelo talked about the revamped perk and skill trees, and the completely new Relic skill tree that’s coming exclusively with the Phantom Liberty expansion. Also presented were three short videos featuring CD PROJEKT RED gameplay designers sharing their favorite character builds. As a bonus, the studio also released the Cyberpunk 2077 Build Planner — a free tool where players can create and plan their own builds in their browsers; everyone wanting to explore the changes made to the perk system, including the Relic skill tree from Phantom Liberty, can do so here.
The release date for Cyberpunk 2077’s free Update 2.0 was also revealed during the episode. With its revamped police system, redesigned perks, enhanced cyberware, and more, the update will be available from September 21st for all players who own Cyberpunk 2077 on current-gen consoles and PC.
⚠️ THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ⚠️
Update 2.0 for #Cyberpunk2077 is coming on September 21! pic.twitter.com/A1evuo4kk6
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) September 14, 2023
About the Music
Like in all CD PROJEKT RED games, music plays an important storytelling role in Phantom Liberty, and composers, P.T Adamczyk and Jacek Paciorkowski took part in this episode of Night City Wire to discuss how they created brand-new music for a spy-thriller story. The composers gave insight into Phantom Liberty’s score and unveiled that the score is available to stream right now in full. They also discussed details of the new radio stations included in the game. One of the new stations’ playlists — Growl FM — is composed entirely of tracks hand-picked from those submitted for a music competition organized for the Cyberpunk 2077 community. During the show, a Growl FM documentary was announced, releasing on September 18th, highlighting how the radio station came to be.
Toward the end of the music segment, the theme song for Phantom Liberty was teased; the song is written and performed by Dawid Podsiadło, currently one of Poland’s top artists. Dawid previously worked with the studio to record music for the critically acclaimed anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Release Date
The world premiere of Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077’s spy-thriller expansion, is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC — including GeForce Now — on September 26th, 2023.
About Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is a narrative-driven, open-world RPG set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour, and body modification. The game tells the multilayered, mature story of cyber-enhanced mercenary V. Players are faced with choices and consequences as they customize their character and playstyle, take on jobs, and build their reputation. The game has sold over 20 million copies and won over 200 awards, and is also the inspiration for the award-winning Netflix anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, created by CD PROJEKT RED in collaboration with Studio Trigger. Its spy-thriller expansion, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, is slated for release in September 2023. Cyberpunk 2077 is set in the universe of the classic pen & paper RPG system, Cyberpunk 2020.
