Could Death Stranding and Cyberpunk 2077 be in the same universe? That's not a question many people may have asked prior to the release of CD Projekt Red's open-world action-RPG, but now that players have gotten to go hands-on with it and uncover some of Night City's secrets, one Easter Egg in particular at least makes the discussion possible.
Before diving too deep into whether or not Death Stranding and Cyberpunk 2077 could be in the same universe, it's important to note that the existence of one Easter Egg doesn't confirm that to be true. While this will be familiar to many veterans in the game industry, Easter Eggs are often little more than fun nods to other pop culture entities, usually without impacting a game's story or deeper lore. The presence of these Easter Eggs does, however, enable fans to make some truly off-the-wall arguments about game properties that might otherwise be impossible, and that's exactly what the Cyberpunk 2077 BB allows.
Without spoiling too much of the Cyberpunk 2077 questline that hides the Death Stranding Easter Egg, players who investigate a Night City crime alongside a suspended cop will eventually break into a research facility doing experimental Braindance work. While looking at the various projects scattered throughout the lab, players will come face to face with a familiar sight from Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding universe - a BB, incubated and ready to help combat BTs. Scanning the BB will confirm as much, eschewing the way some Easter Eggs will make vague allusions to the game universes they're from.
How Death Stranding & Cyberpunk 2077 Could Be Connected
Now, the fun part: How can fans stretch knowledge of Cyberpunk 2077 and Death Stranding enough to even make an argument they exist within the same universe? The answer likely lies in The Beach from Death Stranding, a physical location in the world of the dead. The Beach connects those who pass in one world to something else, and that something is never confirmed. While there are plenty of arguments over whether it functions as a gateway to the afterlife proper, to nothing at all, or to other lives, there's also the possibility The Beach can connect multiple timelines or universes. Given how bizarre the mythology is in Death Stranding, that's not impossible, and an NPC in the game even makes reference to people being able to pass through Earth, the world of the dead, and outer space using The Beach.
If that's true, it's possible one of either Death Stranding or Cyberpunk 2077's Earths could be connected to the other via The Beach. Cyberpunk 2077 has its own ideas about where the soul goes after it dies - or even if the soul exists at all - but that doesn't mean those concepts are the only ones there are room for in the world of Night City and beyond. Cyberpunk 2077 has its own kind of Beach in The Blackwall, a cyberspace area where rogue AIs are kept trapped to prevent any cataclysmic occurrences should they be allowed to roam free across technology.
Alt Cunningham's AI form is also towering and looks vaguely like the Giant BT fought later on in Death Stranding, so there's the potential for digital projections of AIs to eventually occupy physical space and occupy a role similar to the creatures in Death Stranding, dragging the digital construct "souls" of Cyberpunk 2077 citizens into the Blackwall. Finally, BT consumption of living matter results in a voidout, something extremely similar to a nuke going off - which, as a particularly large stretch, could be the reason for some of the smaller nuclear exchanges that populate the history of Cyberpunk 2077's universe prior to the game taking place.
Or, more likely, this is just a clever little nod to Death Stranding after Hideo Kojima featured prominently in some Cyberpunk 2077 advertising a while back. Still, a choom can dream, and the sudden appearance of a BT in any form would be the kind of crossover event that, nonsensical or not, would generate quite a buzz.