Cyberpunk 2077’s history is packed with brutal conflicts waged on the streets, skies, & digital battlefields of the net.

Night City, located on the NUSA’s West Coast, was laid on the rocky foundation of these large scale conflicts, a stark contrast to visionary Richard Night’s intention for the city.

From the early 2000s until 2077, conflicts between Megacorporations have shaped the not-too-distant-future Americas. Corporations in the Dark Future supersede many governments in influence and scale, and as a result, are answerable to no one other than themselves.

4 Corporate Wars, fought between the apex predators of the Megacorporation landscape have shaped the world as of 2077, with a 5th Corporate War looming.

Here is a brief rundown of these wars, the victors, the losers, and the resulting impact on the globe:

The 1st Corporate War (2004 - 2006)

A new standard

The first Corporate War which lasted from August 2004 to February 2006 began through an initially tame affair. Eurobusiness Machines (EBM) was attempting to buy out struggling corporation Transworld Airlines, with the hopes of absorbing their technology, R&D, and key players.

Negotiations began to sour after an unfriendly interaction with Transworld’s CEO. As you can imagine, with big egos, comes big consequences.

Orbital Air, who had a vested interest in Transworld Airlines, saw this as an opportunity to obtain TWA’s air traffic facilities for their own expansion.

Orbital Air blocked EBM’s buyout attempt with sly, underhanded tactics, igniting the 1st Corporate War with EBM.

Initially, Orbital Air sent a negotiation team to try to sweeten the pot for Transworld to sell to OA instead of EBM. After all, a declaration of war, doesn’t mean that negotiations have to cease, right?

When EBM learned of these attempts to strike a deal, they dispatched hired muscle to kidnap key stakeholders en route to that very meeting.

However, this hit-squad compromised their identity, embarrassing and exposing EBM in the process.

Orbital Air attempted to deal the killing blow by recruiting Zetatech, a company specializing in computer technology.

Zetatech, whose fortay was de-stabilization through digital warfare, unleashed a massive wave of net attacks against EBM, and although initially crippling, they were quickly halted, forcing Zetatech out of the war, exiting with their tail between their legs.

The months that followed included raids on each others facilities, armies of corporate solos, proxy troops, and frequent ally changes. Hundreds of thousands of Eurodollars were invested to get the upper-hand.

The 2 most significant turning points were:

When Orbital Air commandos captured a central EBM space station, and
The capture and surrender of EBM’s CEO in his compound in Bavaria.

The 1st Corporate War set a new standard.

That the corps can do as they please.

The 2nd corporate war (2008 - 2010)

The Clash Of The Oil Giants

The 2nd Corporate War is typically known as the most globally devastating and took place between April of 2008 and August of 2010 and featured oil giants Petrochem and SovOil.

This conflict first started when a merger deal fell through, and a consequent drilling accident at a Petrochem platform accelerated the confrontation to a full-blown war.

*Destruction of a SovOil rig in 2008 from Cyberpunk 2020’s Corporation Report vol 3*

Each corporation crippled one another’s oil facilities in a few weeks, although SovOil experienced a greater bout of initial success. Petrochem expended millions of Eurodollars to fight back & regain the upper hand. This peaked when Petrochem captured and assassinated the SovOil founder and CEO Anatoly Novikovo.

This was short-lived, and SovOil easily fended off Petrochem's follow up attack in October of 2009, reducing Petrochem’s forces in the Pacific to impotency. Although not formally acknowledged, with this final blow, the second corporate war was effectively over.

The world was shocked that the second corporate war was even more violent and on a grander scale than the first. Both of these corporations defied national governments, and the world, duking it out under their own conditions and circumstances. Because of raids on mainly oil refineries, power plants, and drilling facilities, pollution was incredibly bad in the southern pacific rim during this time, and the south china sea became a lifeless chemical stew. National economies were devastated, and although SovOil paid fines and reparations, it was already too late.

the 3rd corporate war

cyberspace as a battleground

The 3rd corporate war lasted from February 2016 to November 2016 and was fought almost entirely on the Net. Hostilities began when financial examiners uncovered a confidence scheme being designed by investment counselors at Merrill Asukaga and Finch against private investors using the Rothstein Fun, a subsidiary of the bank of New York, as leverage.

This enraged the Rothstein Fund, and they turned everything over to the District Attorney’s office for an investigation. They also hired local netrunners to begin infiltrating MA&F’s data fortress in search of the truth. MA&F fired back, increasing their security and launching their own netrunners against the Rothstein Fund, attempting to also destroy their computer systems.

Netwatch stepped in and responded by limiting net access and making sweeps which resulted in arrests as well as flatlines. With the net being heavily watched, this is where the conflict moved to the streets. Both corporations started hiring mercenaries, and battles were fought in low earth orbit and earth in attempts to destroy one another's net communication gear and infrastructure. Millions of dollars of destruction occurred, and there was considerable loss of life.

The next 6 months were benign net raids, which yielded no favorites. When it was over the Rothstein fund ceased to exist and MA&F got stuck with the bill for the damage done in LEO and on Earth. By this time, corporate conflict was less shocking, although the method in which the war was fought was relatively new. The Net seemed a likely place for future conflicts to be held, although physical force was still just as important.

The 4th Corporate war

The War That Desembowled Night City

The 4th corporate war took place between 2021 and 2025 and began in a similar way to some of the prior corporate wars with rival Megacorporations butting heads over a financial objective. In early 2021, IHAG, a megacorp specializing in underwater shipping and tech, went bankrupt. Two rival Aquacorps CINO and OTEC entered the picture to pick up the pieces with both vying to takeover IHAGs remaining resources. As the bad blood grew, an all-out war was the only natural next step.

After years of fighting, however, neither of the Aquacorps were able to deliver the final blow to one another, and thus, both of them hired external help in the form of larger Megacorps to provide resources, equipment, and military gear to aid in battle.

OTEC hired Militech, an armaments and security company based in the US, and CINO hired Arasaka, a security Megacorp based out of Japan. As they are both two of the largest paramilitary corporations in the world, with thousands of troops, Arasaka and Militech had been rivals before these contracts with the AquaCorps and were ready for any excuse to be back at each other’s throats.

*A Militech tank drops from a super-carrier onto a beach*

Both Militech & Arasaka are incredible big megacorporations with an incredible amount of sophisticated technology, so much so that if they decided to wage war, no entity on planet earth would be able to stop them. Small pools of conflict effectively turned into large scale battles that took over entire cities and states such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Washington, Chicago, and Night City.

By mid-2022 battles involving aircrafts, AVs, tanks, power armor and thousands of troops was the norm. Cyberattacks disrupted banking, international trade, and media. Orbital space narrowly escaped becoming a battlefield as the space dwelling Highriders began hitting both sides with suborbital artillery strikes capable of decimating small cities. The 3rd world war was essentially in effect, until the Night City Holocaust.

On August 20th, 2023 a strike team led by Elite Solo Morgan Blackhand & Rockerboy Johnny Silverhand detonated a pocket nuke in the Arasaka Towers complex in Night City, reducing the building to rubble and wiping out thousands of people. Silverhand was killed at the hands of Cyborg Arasaka Solo Adam Smasher.

This was the straw that broke the camels back, and within hours US president Elizabeth Kress nationalized Militech, and banished Arasaka forces, and threatened to strike Arasakas Tokyo headquarters if they did not comply.

The aftermath was known as the “Time of the Red”.

A Corporate War History