Vice City through the years: 1997 to GTA 6

Four games, one city

The 1997 sketch

The first Vice City was a top-down map in the original Grand Theft Auto, made by DMA Design, the Scottish studio that later became Rockstar North. It was one of three cities alongside Liberty City and San Andreas, and like the rest of that game it was set in the then-present of 1997. GTA 2 and GTA III went elsewhere, and it was the 2002 game that made the name famous.

The 1986 city that defined it

The 2002 Vice City is the version most people picture: pastel art deco hotels on Ocean Beach, a pink sunset behind the Malibu Club, a radio dial full of the decade's hits, and Tommy Vercetti climbing from a botched deal to a mansion on Starfish Island. Rockstar's team made field trips to Miami after finishing GTA III, and the map's spine, a pair of barrier islands facing a mainland downtown across a bay, is Miami Beach and the city proper.

Vice City Stories rewound to 1984 and gave the same streets to Vic Vance, an ex-soldier building a criminal empire. It started on PSP, and its loop of taking over and running businesses is one GTA kept coming back to.

What GTA 6 keeps, and what it changes

The biggest change is scale and time. Rockstar's own copy says it: "We're a long way from the '80s, but Vice City is still the sun and fun capital of America." The new city sits inside a state, with the Keys to the south, the Grassrivers wetlands on its western edge and a whole map beyond. Phones, social feeds and ride-hailing apps replace payphones and pagers.

Nods to the 2002 game

Rockstar has leaned on the old game mostly through its editions. The Vintage Vice City Pack adds a two-tone '55 Vapid Stanier with a garage near Ocean Beach ("Cruise Shore Drive," says the copy), 1980s-style outfits and hairstyles, and a tropical weapon pattern that tells you to "channel the original Vice City kingpin, Tommy Vercetti, and his iconic palm tree button-up." The Ultimate Edition's revolvers have "classic Vice City stylings sourced from the Vercetti Estate," and its '95 Grotti Cheetah is billed as an "ode to Shore Drive." The easter eggs page tracks the smaller references.

Why GTA 6 is not a sequel to 2002

Rockstar splits its games into universes. The top-down games are one, the PS2-era games (GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas and their handheld spin-offs) are the 3D universe, and everything from GTA IV onward is the HD universe. Cities keep their names across universes but are rebuilt from scratch, and characters from one universe do not appear in the other, though names get dropped. GTA V's Los Santos shared a name and a vibe with San Andreas's Los Santos and little else. The Vercetti Estate and the Tommy Vercetti line in GTA 6's edition copy are the biggest name-drops yet; Rockstar has not said what they mean for the new game's history.

GTA 6's Vice City follows the same rule. The one familiar face so far is from the HD universe, not 1986: Valentina, who hires Jason and Lucia in the Extended Look, shares a name and look with the GTA Online Money Fronts character, and fans widely identify her as the first returning character. Rockstar has not said so. reported See the characters page.

Why Vice City again?

Miami gives Rockstar the two things GTA satire needs: excess and contrast. Beachfront wealth next to working-class neighborhoods, a global port and airport, a nightlife economy, hurricanes, wetlands and state politics that write their own jokes. The 2002 game proved the setting sells, and GTA 6's official framing, "the darkest side of the sunniest place in America," shows Rockstar chasing the same contrast in the present day. For everything Rockstar has shown of the new city, see Vice City in GTA 6.

The story behind the games

David Kushner's book Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto (2012) tells how the series was made, from DMA Design's first Grand Theft Auto to GTA IV, the Vice City years included, so it stops well before GTA 6. It is a journalist's history, not an official Rockstar book.

Rather listen? The unabridged audiobook runs 9 hours 28 minutes, read by Adam Verner, and Audible's Standard plan includes one audiobook a month (Amazon, checked September 28). Try AudiblePaid link: Amazon pays GTA6.how a fee if you sign up. As an Amazon Associate, GTA6.how earns from qualifying purchases.

Where to buy

Read the history, then play GTA VI

Amazon

David Kushner's Jacked tells the story of Rockstar and the series, on paper or as an audiobook. GTA VI takes the series back to Vice City on November 19.

BookJacked (hardcover)David Kushner's 2012 history of Rockstar and the GTA series, in hardcover.Buy on Amazon→AudiobookJacked · audiobookDavid Kushner's history of Rockstar and GTA, unabridged on Audible (9 hours 28 minutes).Listen on Audible→PS5GTA VI · PS5Standard Edition: a download code in the box, no disc, for US and Canadian PlayStation accounts. Amazon delivers from November 12, with release-day delivery for Prime members; it unlocks November 19.Pre-order on Amazon→Xbox Series X|SGTA VI · XboxStandard Edition: a download code in the box, no disc. Amazon delivers from November 12, with release-day delivery for Prime members; it unlocks November 19.Pre-order on Amazon→

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