Welcome to the Corporate State
Imagine if Amazon, Google, and Walmart didn't just dominate the market - imagine if they were the government. In the world of Cyberpunk RED, megacorporations have transcended mere business entities to become the true rulers of human civilization.
These aren't just companies - they're digital-age nation-states with private armies, space programs, and the power to declare war on each other. They write their own rules, and treat national governments like annoying middle management.
The Corporate Hierarchy of Power
In 2045, power flows from the boardroom, not the ballot box. Understanding this hierarchy is like learning the physics of a world where gravity points sideways.
Notice the dotted lines: Government influence on corporations is minimal and indirect. Real power flows down the corporate chain of command.
The Big Players: Megacorporations
The Fourth Corporate War (early 2020s, over by 2025) did not treat the corporate titans equally. Some came out of it hungrier and more ruthless than ever; the biggest name of all came out badly hurt. Each one is a world unto itself, with its own culture, agenda, and way of conducting business. The sketches below are this guide's table-ready summaries, not official corporate profiles — check the Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook before you lean on a detail.
🏢 Arasaka Corporation
Specialization: Security, Finance, Information Management
Philosophy: order through control
Real-world analogy: Imagine if Goldman Sachs, the NSA, and Blackwater merged into a single entity with the cultural authority of the Vatican.
Arasaka was the 800-pound gorilla of the corporate world — and in 2045 it is not, which is not the same thing as being harmless. Getting this wrong is a common mistake at a Cyberpunk RED table, because players arrive with the Arasaka of Cyberpunk 2020 or of Cyberpunk 2077 in their heads.
Here is the short version. Arasaka and Militech were the two giants of the Fourth Corporate War. In 2023 a nuclear device — Militech's — destroyed Arasaka Towers in Night City, and the old Corporate Center around it became the ruin now called the Hot Zone. Arasaka lost the war in America and pulled back to its home ground in Japan.
So in the Time of the Red, Arasaka is a wounded giant working from abroad rather than Night City's landlord. (The rebuilt Arasaka tower of Cyberpunk 2077 is decades in the future — don't import it.) For a crew, that distinction is the job: an Arasaka with long memories and a short reach is exactly the kind of client, or enemy, that works through deniable people.
Corporate Culture: Traditional Japanese hierarchical structure meets ruthless capitalism. Honor, loyalty, and absolute obedience to superiors are paramount. Failure brings shame not just to you, but to your entire family line.
What they want: Total information control. In their ideal world, every byte of data flows through Arasaka servers, and privacy is a privilege they grant, not a right you possess.
⚔️ Militech International
Specialization: Military Hardware, Private Security, Weapons Manufacturing
Philosophy: peace through superior firepower
Real-world analogy: Lockheed Martin crossed with Blackwater, but with the operational reach of the US Military and the profit margins of Apple.
If Arasaka is the brain of the corporate world, Militech is its fist. They don't just make weapons - they make the concept of organized violence. Militech fought Arasaka through the Fourth Corporate War, and the bomb that took down Arasaka Towers was theirs. In 2045 they are the American giant that is still standing, tied closely to what is left of the US government, and the corp a Night City crew is most likely to bump into.
Corporate Culture: Military discipline meets Silicon Valley innovation. Everyone has a rank, every problem has a tactical solution, and failure is analyzed, learned from, and never repeated.
What they want: Perpetual, manageable conflict. Wars are their growth market, and peace is bad for business. They prefer controlled chaos to actual resolution.
🧬 Biotechnica
Specialization: Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Agricultural Engineering
Philosophy: perfecting life through science
Real-world analogy: Monsanto merged with Pfizer, but with the genetic modification capabilities of science fiction.
Biotechnica is the setting's big name in engineered life: crops, drugs and the science behind them. Its exact position in 2045 is not something this guide will guess at, so use it as a type — the corp that owns the patent on whatever grew in your food — and check the Core Rulebook before giving it a plot role.
Corporate Culture: Academic research meets corporate efficiency. Nobel Prize winners work alongside ruthless executives. Progress is measured in lives improved, but also in market share captured.
What they want: Biological dominance. They want to control the building blocks of life itself - your food, your medicine, your genetic code, and eventually, your evolution.
🐉 Kang Tao
Specialization: Advanced Weaponry, Smart Weapons
Philosophy: patience as a weapon
Real-world analogy: Huawei meets Boston Dynamics, with the manufacturing scale of Foxconn.
Kang Tao is best known from the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, as a Chinese arms maker whose smart guns steer their own rounds. Whether and how it figures in 2045 is your call; if you use it, it works well as a rising Asian rival eyeing the gap the war left behind.
Corporate Culture: Long-term strategic thinking and the belief that patience is the ultimate weapon.
What they want: Market share in a world that keeps buying guns, and a seat at the table the old giants used to own.
💻 Zetatech
Specialization: Computers, Cyberdecks, Electronics
Philosophy: the future is data
Real-world analogy: Apple or Dell, if their customers were Netrunners and their competitors sent hit squads.
Zetatech is a computer maker with a long history in the setting — Cyberpunk 2020 players knew the name from cyberdecks. After the DataKrash broke the old global NET, hardware for local networks matters more than ever, which makes a computer corp a natural client for data theft and sabotage jobs.
Corporate Culture: Engineering meritocracy meets Silicon Valley disruption. Genius is rewarded, mediocrity is automated away, and the impossible is just Tuesday's project deadline.
What they want: To sell the machines everyone else's secrets live on.
Corporate Warfare: When Business is War
Corporate competition in 2045 isn't fought with marketing campaigns and price wars - it's fought with armies, assassins, and weapons that can level city blocks. The Fourth Corporate War proved it: it began as a fight between two ocean-industry corps, CINO and OTEC, escalated when Arasaka and Militech joined in, and ended with a nuclear blast in downtown Night City. When enough money is at stake, corporations are willing to burn the world to claim the ashes.
⚔️ The Eternal Dance: Arasaka vs. Militech
The rivalry between Arasaka and Militech isn't just business competition - it's a philosophical war about the nature of power itself. Arasaka believes in control through information and influence. Militech believes in control through superior firepower and military might.
Status in 2045: The shooting war is over and the two sides are not equals any more: Militech is the American power still standing, Arasaka is regrouping overseas. Old grudges run deep, and both sides would rather pay deniable freelancers than start the next war in the open.
Forms of Corporate Warfare
Economic Warfare
Hostile takeovers, market manipulation, currency attacks. When corporations control money itself, economic weapons become more devastating than missiles.
Information Warfare
Netrunning attacks, data theft, reputation destruction. Since the DataKrash wrecked the old global NET, valuable data sits in local NET Architectures, so stealing it means sending a Netrunner physically close to the access point — and NetWatch polices the local networks while keeping the rogue AIs out behind the Blackwall.
Proxy Conflicts
Funding opposing sides in regional conflicts, supporting favorable governments, sponsoring terrorist organizations. Let others bleed for your profits.
Direct Action
Corporate assassinations, facility strikes, resource seizure. Sometimes you need to solve problems with explosives and small unit tactics.
Night City in the Time of the Red
Night City is like Hong Kong, Las Vegas, and Mogadishu had a baby, and that baby was raised by corporations and street gangs. In 2045 it is still digging itself out of the war. The fallout from the 2023 blast (and from the war's orbital strikes) turned the sky red for years — that's where the name "the Time of the Red" comes from — and the city has been rebuilding zone by zone ever since.
R. Talsorian's 2045 map sorts the city into three kinds of ground: zones that are being rebuilt, overpacked suburbs, and Combat Zones nobody has reclaimed. Some names will be familiar from Cyberpunk 2077, which is set decades later; where the video game's district names differ, this page says so.
🌃 Interactive Night City Map
Click a zone to explore | 🟢 Rebuilding | 🟠 Overpacked suburbs | 🔴 Combat Zone (dashed outline)
The Zones of Night City (2045)
These are R. Talsorian's 2045 zone names. Cyberpunk 2077 players will know some of them under shorter or different names; those are noted as the video game's, not RED's.
☢️ The Hot Zone (the old Corporate Center)
Safety Level: None worth the name
Ground zero of the 2023 blast. The Hot Zone is all that remains of the once-booming Corporate Center, where Arasaka Towers stood, and R. Talsorian's 2045 map marks it as a Combat Zone. (Cyberpunk 2077's gleaming City Center, decades later, is a very different picture (Cyberpunk 2077's gleaming City Center and Corpo Plaza are what this ground becomes decades later.)mdash; don't import it.)
Key Features: Ruins, scavengers, whatever the corps left behind in a hurry, and the reason the sky turned red
🏗️ The Rebuilding Zones
Safety Level: The best Night City has to offer — which is relative
The Glen, the University District, Little Europe, Upper Marina, Watson Development, Pacifica Playground and others: the parts of the city where reconstruction money is flowing and the lights mostly stay on. (In Cyberpunk 2077, Watson Development is simply "Watson".)
Key Features: New construction, offices, shops, security that is paid to be visible
🏘️ Heywood
Safety Level: Moderate (depends on the block)
One of the overpacked suburbs, alongside Santo Domingo, New Westbrook, Rancho Coronado and the Industrial Zone. Most of Night City's working people live in zones like this. It's like any American suburb, except the HOA is replaced by gang territories and the neighborhood watch carries military-grade weapons.
Key Features: Residential complexes, local businesses, family neighborhoods, gang territories
🏭 Santo Domingo
Safety Level: Moderate to low
Another overpacked suburb in 2045. Cyberpunk 2077 makes Santo Domingo the city's industrial district; in RED's 2045 map it sits with the crowded suburbs, and the Industrial Zone is its own place. Either way, the work is hard and the air is bad.
Key Features: Worker housing, small shops, jobs nobody else wants
🏖️ Pacifica Playground
Safety Level: Varies (it is being rebuilt, not finished)
One of the zones being rebuilt in 2045. In Cyberpunk 2077, decades later, "Pacifica" is a failed resort district abandoned to gangs — a handy hint for a GM about where all that investment might end up.
Key Features: Construction sites, investors, the coast, the people who were living there first
🎭 New Westbrook
Safety Level: Moderate
An overpacked suburb in 2045. In Cyberpunk 2077 "Westbrook" is the rich, neon entertainment district — don't assume the 2045 version looks like that yet.
Key Features: Crowded housing, local business, room for whatever your campaign needs
☠️ The Combat Zones
Safety Level: Minimal (war zone)
South Night City, the Old Combat Zone, Old Japantown and Chinatown: the areas where civilization gave up and walked away. Ruins from the war, controlled by gangs who shoot first and never ask questions. R. Talsorian's 2045 map also marks a Reclaimed Perimeter around the city’s edge.
Key Features: Ruins, gang territories, black markets, survival of the fittest
The Politics of Power
Night City's government is like a puppet show where everyone can see the strings, but the puppeteers are too powerful to stop. Democracy exists on paper, but real decisions are made in corporate boardrooms and gang hideouts.
The Power Players
Corporate Influence
The real power in Night City. Whoever pays for the rebuilding gets a say in how it's done, and when the corps "advise" city hall, city hall listens — the campaigns were funded by their money, and the security is provided by their personnel.
Who sits at the table in your Night City is a GM decision; this guide doesn't invent an official roster. Useful questions:
- Which corp is paying for the zone the crew lives in?
- How far does Militech's reach go, now that it's the giant still standing?
- Who is quietly working for an absent Arasaka?
- Which smaller local businesses are trying to buy their way in?
- What does NetWatch know about all of them?
The Gang Situation
Gangs in Night City aren't just criminals - they're unofficial governments for areas the official government can't or won't control. They provide security, settle disputes, and maintain order in their territories. It's feudalism with better weapons and worse dental plans.
Gangs You May Know
All five names below are best known from Cyberpunk 2077, set decades after RED. The Core Rulebook has its own 2045 gang roster, so check it before assuming any of these is on the streets in the Time of the Red.
- Maelstrom: Cyberpsycho tech cultists who believe flesh is weakness
- Valentinos: Latino gang focused on family, honor, and territory
- Tyger Claws: Japanese-influenced gang controlling vice and entertainment
- 6th Street: Patriotic gang providing "neighborhood security"
- Animals: Steroid-enhanced muscle providing enforcement services
The Economics of Survival
Money in Night City flows like water - mostly downhill, and most people are drowning while a few swim in luxury. The economy is designed to create just enough hope to keep people working and just enough desperation to keep them compliant.
💰 The Economic Pyramid
🏦 Eurobucks and Everything Else
The money everyone in Cyberpunk RED actually deals in is the eurobuck (eb). (Older Cyberpunk material and Cyberpunk 2077 say "eurodollars"; at a RED table it's eb.) What else changes hands:
- Eurobucks (eb): The standard currency for gigs, gear and rent
- Corporate perks: Housing, food and medical care in place of pay — the Exec's Teamwork Role Ability is built on exactly this
- Favors: What a Fixer really trades in
- Barter: Ammo, meds and food in the zones where eb won't buy much
The Gig Economy Evolved
Most people in Night City don't have "jobs" in the traditional sense - they have gigs, contracts, and hustles. Employment security died with the old world, replaced by a constant scramble for the next paycheck.
Common Work Types:
- Corporate Contracts: Short-term specialist work
- Freelance Services: Independent professionals
- Gang Employment: Working for organized crime
- Street Hustles: Survival-level income generation
- Shadow Work: Off-the-books illegal activities
Daily Life in the Corporate State
Living in Night City is like being an extra in a movie where the main characters are corporations, and the plot involves your slow-motion destruction for their profit.
A Day in the Life: Corporate Employee
6:00 AM: Wake up in corporate housing, check mandatory morning briefing
7:00 AM: Corporate shuttle to work (monitored for productivity)
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM: Work shift with mandatory loyalty assessments
6:00 PM: Corporate shuttle home (different route for security)
7:00 PM: Dinner from corporate commissary (nutritionally optimized)
8:00 PM: Mandatory recreation time (stress monitoring active)
10:00 PM: Sleep (dream monitoring for subversive thoughts)
A Day in the Life: Street Level
Variable: Wake up when you can afford to
Morning: Check if your building still has power and water
Day: Hunt for work, avoid gang territory disputes
Evening: Try to earn enough for food and shelter
Night: Hope you live to see tomorrow
The Surveillance State
Privacy in Night City is a luxury good. Every transaction is monitored, every movement tracked, every conversation recorded. The corporations know what you buy, where you go, who you talk to, and increasingly, what you think.
Surveillance Methods:
- Facial recognition cameras on every corner
- Financial transaction monitoring
- Monitoring of the local CitiNets
- Biometric tracking through cyberware
- Predictive behavioral modeling
How to Use This Information
Understanding the corporate and political landscape of Night City isn't just background flavor - it's the foundation for every story you'll tell and every character you'll play.
For Players
Choose Your Enemies Wisely
Every corporation offers opportunities and threats. Arasaka might hire you for a job while simultaneously trying to destroy you for a previous transgression. Understanding corporate motivations helps you navigate these treacherous waters.
Location Matters
A firefight in a rebuilt zone with corporate security on call plays very differently from one in the Combat Zone. Know where you are, who controls it, and what resources they can bring to bear against you.
Money Talks, But Violence Speaks Louder
In Night City, economic power and military force are interchangeable currencies. Sometimes the best way to solve a financial problem is with a gun, and sometimes the best way to win a fight is with a briefcase full of cash.
For Game Masters
Corporations as Characters
Treat each megacorporation like a massive, complex character with its own motivations, goals, and personality. They react to player actions, form alliances and grudges, and pursue their own agendas regardless of what the players are doing.
The City as a Living Entity
Night City changes based on player actions and corporate maneuvering. Districts rise and fall, gangs gain and lose territory, and the balance of power constantly shifts. Make the city feel alive and reactive.
Consequences Cascade
Actions in the corporate world have ripple effects. Stealing from Arasaka doesn't just anger Arasaka - it affects their stock price, their relationship with other corporations, their security protocols, and ultimately the entire city's political balance.
The Future of Power
Night City in 2045 is still rebuilding from the Fourth Corporate War, but the fundamental structure of corporate dominance remains intact. If anything, the war proved that corporations are more resilient than governments, more adaptive than nations, and more ruthless than any force in human history.
The question isn't whether corporations will continue to rule the world - it's what kind of world they'll build while they're ruling it. Will it be a gleaming utopia of technological progress and economic efficiency? Or will it be a grinding dystopia where human dignity is just another commodity to be bought and sold?
That's where your characters come in. In Night City, every individual action is a vote for the kind of future humanity deserves. The corporations may hold most of the power, but they haven't captured the human spirit - yet.
Remember: You Are Here
In this world of corporate titans and digital gods, your characters are the human element that can't be quantified, predicted, or controlled. You're the variable that doesn't fit the equation, the anomaly that breaks the algorithm.
The corporations think they understand human nature, but they're about to learn that the most dangerous force in the universe is a small group of determined individuals who refuse to accept that the system can't be changed.
Welcome to Night City. Try not to let it kill you.