Cyberpunk Timeline: 1990-2020

An alternate timeline of a dark future, where megacorporations run amok with paramilitary security forces and the United States is in tatters...
Source for the map used at 9:45. I thought it was official because someone had put it on the wiki but it isn’t though it is more or less an accurate map:
www.deviantart...

[@laurenschlosser7187]

Half the lore seems outlandishly unrealistic…but then the other half is uncomfortably similar to current events. That makes a great dystopian world!

[@speccyisme5184]

honestly the only unrealistic parts would be the advanced technology

[@chadhardt6136]

actually, in the books, a lot of that lore has a lot of reasons and is completely explained, even if it sounds unrealistic. Pondsmith has a really good grasp of how events snowball out of control

[@Eclipse.7897]

@@chadhardt6136 How is his writing style? Are the books entertaining to read or rather dry?

[@chadhardt6136]

@@Eclipse.7897 its a game and its written like one most of the time, but it deviates when it needs it to provide context or a good transition into something else, but overall, Pondsmith gets the tone and point of the world really quick. also, the original book was written like, 2 decades ago, and a lot of the things like the whole "diversity and unity" part that pretty much was a warning to our current times it happened before the collapse of america, in which almost every group of people started a fight to be seen as special but also "equal", everyone wanted to hold the truth and if someone dare to speak bad about your group, you were going to get painted as a "racist or sexist" or whatever, the point being that the whole country got divided by petty fights... still, its kinda pointless to read the book if you aren't going to play it, but there's stuff like this video that talk about the setting, you can get to the good stuff from those sources i guess.

[@Eclipse.7897]

@@chadhardt6136 okay, thanks for the answer

[@testedalexthegreat1759]

Cyberpunk is just some American kids nerdy alt history world, the creator of cyberpunk is so creative he deserves love.

[@Vanq17]

I love that Texas seceded from the USA just because they tried to take away their guns. Probably the most realistic thing about the entire lore.

[@TheMinuteman]

You don’t. Mess. With Texas. How often does this need to be stated?

[@buffewo6386]

God bless Texas... Even in fiction, we try to stand for both our Rights & what is right. That is why so many of us who live here (Texas) have such... Cognitive Dissonance... over the fact that Robert Francis O'Rourke is running for governor. Proof that a gun grabber has a chance if outside forces push enough money into the mix. (No, I will not call him by a mexican nickname. It is great branding, but is no more accutate than adding jalapeños to that gravy/cheese/ fries thing called poutine makes it mexican. My family still lives in the Borderland, and the... ethics... of the O'Rourke political family is well known.)

[@garagegames2555]

@@buffewo6386 never forget he killed someone in a hit and run dui

[@SuperResnick]

Realistic only to Texans probably lol

[@garagegames2555]

@@SuperResnick fr, by that logic Texas would have already seceded with the NFA and ‘86 machine gun ban

[@kyle4392]

I've played countless amount of hours of cyberpunk 2077 and decided to learn the lore in my spare time and came across this video.. great work man! a lot of research must went into this

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

Thanks! Check out the 2020-2045 video too. I want to make a 2045-2077 video eventually, but I’ve been hesitating because there’s a lot of vagueness in that part of the timeline.

[@DocOrtmeyer]

😱😱😱😱😱

[@hatcast944]

@@WatchmanGamingLore l

[@Azhureus]

Same here, this was a good choice this video was :)

[@TheChronozoan]

​@@hatcast944 I what?

[@Rose1312afa]

its wild, im absolutely obsessed with learning as much as i can about cyberpunks dystopian reality, i guess to escape the current dystopian reality

[@CevicheGato]

I call our current reality depressing and yet optimistic. Cyberpunks setting is so advanced and yet very living in hell alright. At least our world we have major concerns on the earth. In cyberpunk, they just don’t care about the earth and let it get messed up very nihilistically. People are aware of discrimination. Cyberpunks social problems are so very problematic that even mentioning “racism” alerts for censorship. Corporations push pride advertising on our world. Corporations in the cyberpunk world have so much influence that they can militarize and actually wage war against other rivaling corporations and collateral damage is so war like it’s so shrugged out and tell people to move on. And people just move on. Not our citizens. Citizens never forget in the current reality. Citizens In cyberpunk just forget tragedies. Even forget their loved ones are gone. There’s feminism in our reality. And people at least call out violence against women. In cyberpunk. There’s no third wave feminism or any form of feminism and this allowed more discrimination and persecution on women into their present day. People say that cyberpunk world is better than our current reality. But I say. What?!

[@TheChronozoan]

​@CevicheGato Very well said. So many in our actual world have given up on the future but there is so much to support a hopeful outlook. You can't give in to defeatism. Defeatism guarantees defeat.

[@cyberbeep5187]

You are criminally undersubscribed, and the reason I'm getting a table top gang together to make our own Night City adventures happen. Thank you for helping me with filling in details!

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

I’m glad you can use it as a resource! I hope your group has a blast in Night City!

[@paulquinlan354]

I started finishing my second playthrough of 2077 and I've always been interested in the lore and world of the games I play so having videos like these are always a fantastic watch/listen while I play said games. Thank you Watchman!

[@noahbanks4983]

Nice work, as usual. Thanks for all the research you put into these. Looking forward to part 2.

[@jamesusurper9676]

Recently started playing Cyberpunk again (due to Edgerunners anime) I’ve always liked games or movies with rich lore so, I’m glad that you put together these videos to go in depth and explain the Cyberpunk lore. Must’ve taken a lot of time to put these videos together, so thank you homie

[@dimmacommunication]

I started replaying it cause after 2 years they fixed it 😂😂😂

[@Caz-wu5wb]

@@dimmacommunication would it be worth it to play on ps5?

[@dimmacommunication]

@@Caz-wu5wb Now that it's fixed on PC ,yes. I like the story a lot , but when It came out it was unplayable.

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

It's also funny how people create alt-history maps by lumping random countries together without much rhyme or reason other than _"These countries are close together and I don't know enough about them to tell them appart so this makes things simpler and alt-historyish"_ Like why Argentina and Chile, two notoriously adversarial nations on oppossing sides of a massive geographic barrier would be lumped together, while Uruguay is lumped with Brazil that doesn't even speak the same language rather than with Argentina with whom they share historical and geographical kindship is beyond me. But I guess I only know these things because it's my neck of the woods : P I guess similar vague lumpings seem to sprout all around the third world, where the author of the map didn't know better about a region's nations and the massive cultural divides that keep them appart even today. Let alone in such a strenuous setting.

[@ct9564]

Where's that quote from?

[@TheChronozoan]

​@@ct9564 that's not a quote, that's just a analogy. A summarization of a perspective

[@Azhureus]

After like 300hrs played in the game I jsut had that feeling I need to know more, this was a good choice to come here, great video dude, thank you !

[@BuffDaddySmoove]

I must say you have a very noah caldwell gervais feel which i absolutely love and also one more thing to add. This is EASILY at least in my opinion the most comprehensive and cohesive breakdown of the cyberpunk timeline i have seen. Been learning the lore for a bit now and one thing that confused me was trying to learn the timeline and history, it always felt like there were chunks missing or not explained well but this video really captures the essence of it all.

[@giannileegalvan2669]

Damn, this timeline makes ours look like a cakewalk.

[@elperrodelautumo7511]

Exactly and I see these PC babies and their worst counterparts the anti woke and pc babies bitching that they’re living in a terrible timeline. Like it’s clown world. People should be blessed that clown world isn’t the worst timeline in human history. The cyberpunk timeline is like a horror movie setting there. It’s like the purge but more so a daily occurrence then certain events that just happens.

[@Rose1312afa]

ehh, give ours a couple years

[@Rose1312afa]

@Flonity ur wrong homie if u were tapped in u would know. The vibe is off everywhere rn especially in the states.

[@Rose1312afa]

@Flonity there is a literal genocide against trans people happening right now in the united states. The world is dying and way worse off then we originally thought from global warming. the widespread and longterm impact of cocid has yet to fully take effect, getting infected with an immune resistant endothelial and multisystem disease 3 times a year every year for the rest of our lives is not sustainable. Most countries are collapsing. The pyramid scheme that is capitalism is on the brink of collapse in most countries, leaving them teetering on the edge of fascism or feudalism

[@Pingas20]

​@Rose1312afa it's been a couple of years

[@elykyle]

22:20 the nuke i think was a response in retaliation for US attacks on bogota. as for the eu corpo support, it was not clear whether the corpos were in business with drug lords or if they were simply taking advantage of an opportunity to weaken the US my headcanon with the eu corpos backing i think is that it might be related to the quite war w/ the eec

[@Brother_Rony]

Night city being named after Mr. Night is some 40k Mr. Land and his lands raiders type bullshit

[@anteaterzhell]

nice video very informative, looking forward to part 2 :)

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

As soon as the Cyberpunk Red sourcebook comes out, I’ll feel comfortable filling out the 2020-2045 period

[@recminecraft3235]

I was looking at many videos about the lore of this game and I have to tell you, that even if I discovered that this whole was full of errors, you're the only one that explains this story in a way that makes it feel real

[@MrBig913]

Love the video, would love to see more cyberpunk lore.

[@vavra222]

Sometimes, KZbin absolutely nails the suggestions. Your delivery is great, 1st video of yours i watched was the recent, almost 3 hours NC deep dive and i enjoyed it to the end, you have a good voice for this and your manner of speaking is just very easy to listen to and absorb. If only i could stay alert and absorb a steady stream of information for that long in school...

[@iWork3d]

Wow! Awesome lore; what a great video, thanks!

[@TunneLVisioN42]

Great stuff, thank you for collating this information and making a video!

[@MrNuke321]

fantastic lore analysis, keep up the good work!!!!

[@marceloescamilla8867]

very cool video! I'm colombian and I find the idea of drug lords nuking NY pretty crazy, but hey, it's cyberpunk.

[@guy6411]

No

[@Brickkzz]

Yes

[@SusCalvin]

Cartel lords sponsored by the EU, no less.

[@trublacking8572]

This shit is dark but good asf for lore

[@The_PaleHorseman]

The game was far from good lol

[@eggycarrot]

@@The_PaleHorseman yea the launch was a shame considering how much depth this game's world has. At least most of the bugs right now has been fixed

[@brainrot4919]

@@eggycarrot It's a great game now.

[@HandOfThemis]

@@The_PaleHorseman Cyberpunk is more than the video game...

[@dimmacommunication]

@@brainrot4919 Yeah now it's a good game , I would suggest it :) But at the launch it was pure trash 🙄

[@alexflores7652]

During this time the DEA had a bio-engineered plague that targeted the cocoa plants in South America. As part of the "War on Drugs" raged on like we had in our timeline. If you look into the version 2 source book of 2020, it's the section called "All things dark and Cyberpunk".

[@GetLostGames1]

Cyber City Oedo 808 is still the best cyberpunk anime. I enjoyed watching this thank you.

[@thechurchofnimko7678]

awesome lore video !

[@AcM.5233]

God, I feel old. I played BOTH table top games. Then got really into Neocron MMORPG that was loosely based off this.

[@thefearofg0ds758]

I've never played a table top game before and honestly never understood how such a thing could have or convey such rich lore. The video game is what introduced me to the franchise when I saw the trailer back in 2012. I did some digging and found out it was a "sequel" to a "game" from 1988, thinking it was an old PC game and discover it was a tabletop. I've always been curious as to how these stories were presented back then. Were there little booklets(similar to how instructions manuals used to have backstories for video games back in the day)?

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

Sort of. The sourcebooks provide setting information and story ideas for the person running the game to use in addition to rules and equipment. How well the setting and lore get across during a tabletop game depends on how good a storyteller the game master is. There’s a “Night City” sourcebook for the 2020 setting for example that details neighborhoods, police, gangs…

[@Satanika]

Just what I was looking for, thanks!

[@notmadeofpeople4935]

Instead of the same internet, they have the “net”. Whoa. Trippy.

[@filipnorheim6456]

why do I feel like our shattering was just delayed by 30 years?

[@realwhatbrains]

The table top be like GM:"You stumble down a back alley way and find a weapon." You: "ouuuhh what kinda weapon?" GM: "..The Phallus.." You: "The what now?"

[@Exodon2020]

Does it come with a voice interface? "New user detected!"

[@Shamshiro]

@@Exodon2020 - "New user registered. Be prepared for some 'hard' times~!"

[@dimmacommunication]

Very nice video , informative :)

[@Daniel-tx2vt]

LMAO mantigo corp really fucked around and found out lmfaoooooo

[@mynameisnothingbeachyep3268]

Really liked it

[@PixelWolv]

Johnny took arasaka tower out back in August but they are almost back to normal already.

[@brockly7916]

the animal extinction part hits hard. reason why you don't see many pets or bugs...

[@mkvector9539]

what about livestock, are they gone too?

[@brockly7916]

@@mkvector9539 they probably use 3d printed meat or cells to grow meat at this point... Machines are doing it maybe along with cyborg employees. Makes sense in that perspective.

[@BallyBoy95]

3:10 - Minor correction: Eurrodollars are called "Eddies" for short, and is used by thr European Economic Community and New USA, as you have stated.

[@thegunslinger8806]

Cyberpunk lore kinda feels like they wrote it without properly understanding the USA or some world politics.

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

It definitely was written from a very “rule of cool” outlook rather than rigorous worldbuilding. It was also mostly written in the late 1980s for an American audience focusing on the American setting, a lot of the nuances of world politics were definitely skated over. For me the speed of the societal collapse is what’s especially unbelievable.

[@AlexiosLair]

Mass Effect Citadel music really does fit here!

[@sneedmando186]

Kinda fees like I lived this lol Are we gonna merge timelines?

[@zac0918]

people in 1988 had high hopes for technological advancement

[@elperrodelautumo7511]

I’m sure my theory about the cyberpunk timeline being more advanced was because of alien encounters and how the government cabals have appropriated the more advanced technology. Maybe during the Cold War where the aliens have some involvement. It makes sense that vtol, cyber limb, and Net technology came from the aliens.

[@burakahmettr8193]

incredible, thanks bud

[@thepoppets1052]

I come here for Cyberpunk lore and you hit me with "I also do Dragon Age lore" Mf thats an automatic sub from me

[@CyrilSneer123]

I use to play the original pen & paper Cyberpunk RPG. The combat system was one of the best out there.

[@boarstreamgaming8240]

Thanks for a great video, gives a good insight into the setting More on Europe?

[@blairprice1328]

Id like to see a retro futureistic cyberpunk movie

[@warkito]

nice video, thanks

[@Tarik360]

Wow, I think I could sorta see it all happening but it's so vastly different!

[@LLlap]

The Euro-Dollar is commonly known as the Eudo. But they don`t tell you that because of the obvious connotations.

[@serjacklucern4584]

so, even in the cyberpunk universe there is "the Pitt"...

[@mythsqueuemusic]

I just found out this started off as a board game wtf

[@Opmdiva]

1988 - 2013 first cyber punk trailer 1988 - year 2020 - game comes out in 2020

[@guy6411]

Cyberpunk sub-genre.

[@stateofflorida5082]

Wait a minute, did Mike Pondsmith predict the August Coup? The original book was released in the late 80s and the coup took place in the early 90s.

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

The original book was very light on setting details, with a lot of those coming in the second addition and later supplemental books that released in the early to mid 1990s. I don’t really remember where that piece of information came from, but it might have already happened by the time it made its way into the setting.

[@alicethegrinsecatz6011]

Why is this video on the app not available in more than 480p? And only if I switch to another account, I can get at least 480p, settings for quality are greyed out and can't be opened. On another account, it's similar but instead of 480p, it shows "unavailable". On this account, the video is only in 360p and 1080p Premium which requires the Premium subscription. In Firefox for Android, I have the options 144p, 360p, 720p and 1080p.

[@jackrobinson1073]

I want a Cyberpunk game based in this period

[@t8kabr8km85]

1:45 right so nothings changed so far

[@Cosmonaut_Neko]

God damn Pittsburgh can't catch a break.😬

[@a.n_9364]

Class great stuff

[@rossnorris2351]

Let me correct one thing my friend. The VP was in on the gang of 4. He was the "leader"

[@decp12]

What about That "New Central Europe"?

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

There is a sourcebook fleshing out the European setting that I will eventually make a video about.

[@kevinbourke1847]

Very nice 👍

[@dimmacommunication]

9:45 where has this map been taken from ?

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

Honestly, it’s a fan made map that I thought was official when I made the video because someone had put it on the wiki. This appears to be the original creator: www.deviantart.com/silas-coldwine/art/Cyberpunk-2020-725663466 It seems more or less accurate though

[@dimmacommunication]

@@WatchmanGamingLore Thank's 👍😃

[@Bourikii2992]

I hate how modernized 2077 is. Less cyberpunk and more cyberpoppunk.

[@elperrodelautumo7511]

Because the setting is more government regulation and keeping the corporations on the leash but they continue doing their advertising and backstabbing actions

[@Bourikii2992]

@@elperrodelautumo7511 I mean the style and the art directions. The tabletop is very much Blade Runner 80's punk noir. 2077 is like modern pop trends taken to the extreme.

[@DarkNoggin]

Excellent video!! What are the background images from? It doesn’t all look like gameplay or cinematic- is there a cyberpunk series/movie (outside of anime) that I’m missing!?!?

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

It’s mostly trailers for the game I think. I made this video before the game was released so I just put trailer footage in the background.

[@DarkNoggin]

@@WatchmanGamingLore Awesome thanks!

[@jaylarkin4331]

I may have missed it, but when did cyberwear become a thing in this universe?

[@ShadowOfDeath33]

Before 2020s for sure. That's all I got.

[@ShadowOfDeath33]

19:35

[@alma3927]

The creator is a time traveler

[@ShadowOfDeath33]

Dumb.

[@warhorse03826]

doesn't sound that far off from the Car Wars timeline from Steve Jackson Games

[@qillqiggins294]

So are u telling me Bethesda stole the idea for the Pitt in fallout 3 from cyberpunk??

[@ShadowOfDeath33]

It's in fo3?

[@qillqiggins294]

@@ShadowOfDeath33 yeah one of the dlc is called the Pitt and is literally almost exactly what is described in this video

[@giovanniamore7532]

jeah.. afgahn druglords blowing up new ýork skýscrapers makes no sense either...

[@yousircantknow8987]

Megacorps engaging in war.... How does this help the stock price? Moreover with martial law, famine, succession, hostile international relations and the like, how in the hell does a Stock Market exist?

[@pschohan9379]

I guesse the major business that exist are monopolies but I’m no expert looks like the companies run the world only the rich get richer

[@Solinvic]

Destroying or seriously crippling your competitors in corporate warfare would absolutely drive your stock up, if your competitors can't compete then You're the only company people can shop with for your niche of product Because regardless of all of that the companies still make unfathomable amounts of money each year and ultimately stock holders don't care about the conditions external to a company; only that the company makes money, everything else is irrelevant

[@yousircantknow8987]

@@Solinvic I don't think you understand how financial systems work.

[@KamiRecca]

"The cold war was won, as in our time." oh was it now?

[@anusername8350]

“Won” definitely isn’t the word I’d use to refer to either side.

[@KamiRecca]

@@anusername8350 im not even sure i'd use words like Stopped or Ended.

[@Exodon2020]

Uhh, the Soviet Union collapsed with most of its former members declaring independence throughout 1991. Now, despite Putin's huffin' and puffin' this remains a historical fact. Russia lost the hegemony over many of the other former USSR member states as well as all of the USSR's former Warsaw Pact puppets. The Cold War was over and the West won it. Now we're in some sort of continuation conflict with a Russian Federation turned full-on fascist - and that conflict only keeps going because the West has done everything to avoid a confrontation until Feb 24th, 2022.

[@RC15O5]

@@KamiRecca I like to use labels like 20th Century Cold War and 21st Century Cold War. They are the same yet different.

[@DoctorWu23]

Thank you so much for think. Trying to put together a cyberpunk Philadelphia setting and this is very useful for the general backdrop info I need.

[@MightyMadFish]

ADHD viewer speed guide x1.25 for ideal speed while retaining flow

[@emmyturner7385]

Its weird that you said cornado isnt real i used to live there its in san deigo

[@suepr-etendo8647]

Ngl I just made a fire song with those words 😭

[@99zxk]

I say SovOil similar to Soviet, not Saw.

[@spontaneousbootay]

Pretty cool

[@GHILLIESARCADEANDMORE]

Cool

[@guy2334]

how bout dem edgerunners doe

[@juanmccoy3066]

Mob rule is not the same as the mafia ruling a city. Thats not what mob rule means. Mob rule is a derogatory term for democracy. The idea when the majority or "the mob" bullies the minority by justifying their rule as something other than mob rule, using terms like democracy or representative republic

[@kevinbourke1847]

A nuclear war on drug?

[@Crazy8-v7r]

Republic of Texas - ROT😢

[@johndoe4004]

lol of course utah ignores, the Mormons really do take over

[@dasuberpanda]

My question is, how does the cyberpunk timeline become so far advanced in tech? I mean they have netrunners in 2022 and we have ...the.. metaverse. I was hoping to find out but all this timeline shows is a really terrible history.

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

The answer is that Mike Pondsmith came up with this stuff in 1989 and filled it with a bunch of sci-fi ideas. There isn’t any particular reason, he just thought 30 years from 1990 was a reasonable timeframe for these things to be developed.

[@dasuberpanda]

@@WatchmanGamingLore thats kind of what I thought. I kinda really wish CDPR adjusted for that, and made it more 'realistic.'

[@CevicheGato]

Maybe mankind was available to see the existence of aliens with the technology that so advanced and ahead of human kind. That they appropriated elements of it and are more technologically advanced than our real life timeline.

[@notsostealthmission5184]

Honestly the one super good thing in this world is the existence of the African Union

[@Noobmasterr44]

Yeah “alternative” reality 😂

[@kyleshurmur-dg3kq]

Love the way the UK always gets the worst of any thing in American fictional worlds starting to think you Americans don't like us 😂😂😂😂

[@yanndylan2239]

How come Chad, an African country was hit as part of the middle East meltdown?

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

No idea. It’s called the Mideast meltdown but it seems there were a few other cases of nuclear destruction and areas of the globe descending into chaos and anarchy. It isn’t particularly clear if they are actually part of the Mideast meltdown though.

[@Anonymous-pd3sg]

Lmao space slavery....nice!

[@CevicheGato]

Which becomes much worse than the trans Atlantic slave trade. And really it does. I seen their future lore.

[@deinonychusben]

Scary. 😀

[@jackieanderson9408]

😊😊

[@moredakka5789]

The core rulebook of cyberpunk 2e describes recent european history as 'business as usual'. Nothing important happened apparently. I have the feeling the cyberpunk universe was invented by a 14 year old.

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

It was definitely a setting built from the start around “rule of cool” rather than rigorous thought out world building, not to mention hyper focused on the location of Night City, with limited information even about the rest of the US. However, it has gained in detail beyond that initial treatment, Europe has several supplementary sourcebooks dedicated to fleshing it out as a setting in this world.

[@saladbruh2625]

the whole lore looks like Europe and Soviets trolling the USA , WTF I love this timeline!

[@elperrodelautumo7511]

More like Western Europe wanted to help the USSR from collapsing; which is great. And atleast that doesn’t have Russia invading Ukraine because that would never happen under the USSR banner

[@adamm2091]

10:55 New Zealand is just New Zealand 😁

[@kmac892]

Haha cyberpunk predicted economic fall from mass immigration in the UK.

[@DocOrtmeyer]

And the EU, and china surpassing America

[@Martin.Kefauver]

Sounds pretty much like our own timeline.

[@elperrodelautumo7511]

Not technically. But the cyberpunk timeline feels like a horror movie setting there. Like it’s really messed up. And people complain that they have it rough. Try surviving in night city alone and not cybernetically enhanced.

[@timetellersunion3711]

Jesus bless you

[@MarineCorpzor1]

If only the Mideast Meltdown happened for real. It is fascinating how Britain and South Africa collapse is basically true now a days.