The game's creators Marcus Smith and Drew Murray pitched the game to numerous companies, but all of these pitches broke down over Insomniac's condition that they own the IP for Sunset Overdrive. They ended up pitching the game directly to Microsoft several times, who were more open to Insomniac owning the IP, and they ended up publishing the game as an Xbox One exclusive. The "main pitch" that presented the core ideas of the game to several executives however was noted for being unconventional, with Murray arriving wearing his "lucky shoes", riddled with holes, which he had not changed in two weeks:

If the player attempts to swim out of bounds the initially invisible boundary preventing this will then be visible when the player gets close to the point where giant lettering on it can be seen saying "INVISIBLE WALL" and below that "SECURITY PROVIDED BY FIZZCO".

The "Insomniac Games" poster in the opening credits references other games made by the developer under humorous names:

• Rivetor FMV (Disruptor)
• Flyro the Wagon (Spyro the Dragon)
• Flyro 2: Flipto's Gauge (Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage)
• Flyro 3: Gear of the Wagon (Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon)
• Catchet + Frank (Ratchet & Clank)
• Catchet + Frank: Going Again (Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando)
• Catchet + Frank: Round Up Your Decimal (Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Aresnal)
• Dreadlocks (Deadlocked)
• Persistence: Stall of Man (Resistance: Fall of Man)
• Catchet + Frank Moocher: Rules of Seduction (Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction)
• Catchet + Frank Moocher: Blessed With Booty (Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty)
• Persistence 2 (Resistance 2)
• Catchet + Frank Moocher: Snack'N Time (Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time)
• Persistance 3 (Resistance 3)
• Catchet + Frank: 4-Play (Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One)
• Chowdernauts (Outernauts)
• Overstrike (Fuse)
• Catchet + Frank: Into the Texas (Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus)

Many of the respawn animations are references to other media, these include:
• Portal
• Dracula
• Mission Impossible
• Bill and Ted-esque Phone Booth
• The Ring
• Terminator
• Star Trek
• Risky Business

At the top of a ship docked at the south-east part of the city, there is a telescope. Looking through the telescope will cause the player to say "Okay, I'm here. Do I synchronize now, or what? Oh, wrong game." This is a reference to the Assassin's Creed series.

In the mission "Crimson Eyes in the North", the last target is a Ice Banana stand. After destroying it, the player remarks that there's always money in the banana stand, referencing a running gag from the show Arrested Development.

The side mission "Breaking Booze" is filled with references to the TV show "Breaking Bad".

According to Marcus Smith, the game returns to Insomniac's "roots" and draws influence from Sega games like Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio.

In the 2023 Insomniac Games ransomware data leak, a leaked financial document revealed the development costs, sales, and shares for every game Insomniac has worked on for years. Sunset Overdrive, a 2014 Xbox and PC exclusive game co-developed by Insomniac, sold 1,898,433 units for a total of $49,737,133, but only netted the company $567 in profit after costs had been divided. This is a testament to the fact that a modern game has to sell exorbitant amounts for the development studio to make back what it often invests in creating it, possibly being an indicator of why Insomniac pivoted to making games based on financially lucrative Marvel Comics properties.