"The biggest battle we are having is we have to regress the technology enough to where we wouldn’t find a natural process of technological development," says Pondsmith, "where you are walking around with jet packs and flying cars and winged helmets. Lucky for us, we had a Corporate War that damn near destroyed most of the planet."
Not only that, but a flood of lethal computer viruses has meant people can no longer communicate over the net. In many ways, the tech of 2077 is less advanced than that of 2020, and this is a key to maintaining the cyberpunk feel according to Monnier.
"To keep the feeling of cyberpunk, you kinda have to keep things broken just enough. You have to keep the technology curve down to where it’s still people, interacting on a personal level."