Cyberpunk 2077 players find in-game tribute to fan who died before Phantom Liberty's launch

As a way of memorialising its fans that tragically pass away before their highly anticipated game is released, more and more developers are hiding tributes in its recent releases. Now one fan has received this honour in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

The tribute was spotted when one player noticed Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty featured an NPC known as 千寺狐 (Qian Si Hu in English). When the discovery was made, news spread across Chinese websites and social media which led to Reddit user Spare-Role-1817 offering an explanation to the supposed tribute.

Check out the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty below!

The user explained that in 2022, a Chinese fan of Cyberpunk 2077 known as Renfei ran a gundam model shop up until he passed away due to cardiac issues. “The shop ceased to operate, of course. But a while later, the customers of the shop found that the shop was back on and weirdly the products that got shipped were not as good as before. Turned out Renfei's mother (in her 50s) had decided to learn all the crafts and keep the shop running” they continued. Having to learn all the skills needed to create 3D models, Renfei’s mother said, "Once I meet him again (in heaven), we'll have more topics to share now”.

Since then, a character called “千寺狐” can be found in Phantom Liberty’s Dogtown in a shop named after the shop account he once used and that his mother has now inherited. Instead of creating gundam models, he can be found creating the Cyberpunk equivalent of cybernetic prosthesis. In his real-life shop, Renfei also used to create replica “RELIC” models which are used in the game to keep memories alive in digital form.

Since Renfei’s appearance in the game, his mother has allegedly released a new statement confirming that she is aware of the tribute and was even informed of it beforehand by CD Projekt Red. "Son, tonight a lot of little friends told me they saw you, said you are a prosthetic doctor," her statement reads. “I don't know if you are doing well over there, I miss you very much. You know, I seldom play games. I used to play only Zuma and [simple games] like Connect the Dots. This vacation I want to learn how to play the game Cyberpunk 2077, just because [you're there]."

CD Projekt Red has not yet confirmed this story to be true or if the NPC is based on Renfei but it seems like an awful lot of coincidences to not be.