Vice City Across Eras: 1997, 2002, 2006 and GTA VI

Vice City from the 1997 top-down original to the 2002 game, the 1984 prequel and its return in GTA VI, with layouts, years and confirmed facts compared.

Vice City has had three lives, and it is about to get a fourth. It began as one of three top-down cities in 1997. In 2002 it became a 1980s period piece and, by Take-Two's count, the best-selling game of its year. In 2006 it went back two more years for a handheld prequel. On November 19, 2026, it returns as the city at the heart of GTA VI's state of Leonida. Our argument: Vice City matters to the series less as a map than as a time. Each of the first three versions is defined by its decade first and its streets second. GTA VI's year has not been confirmed.

At a glance

Item	Detail	Source
First appearance	Grand Theft Auto, PC, 1997	Retro Gamer via GamesRadar+
Real-world analogue	Miami	Retro Gamer; GamesRadar+ timeline
Games set there	GTA (1997), GTA Vice City (2002), GTA Vice City Stories (2006), GTA VI (Nov 19 2026)	Take-Two; Rockstar; FACTS.md F1
In-game years	1986 (Vice City), 1984 (Vice City Stories)	GamesRadar+ timeline and review
Protagonists	Tommy Vercetti (2002), Victor Vance (2006), Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos (GTA VI)	Steam copy; GamesRadar+; FACTS.md
Units, Vice City	over 13 million sold, as of Oct 2004	Take-Two

What is counted, and how

Release dates come from Take-Two's Business Wire releases and Rockstar's own pages. For Vice City Stories on PSP, Rockstar's May 2006 announcement gave Oct 17, 2006. We found no primary release with the final day, so we print only "October 2006", which GamesRadar+ confirms. In-game years come from GamesRadar+, because Rockstar's store copy says only "the 1980s".

Everything about GTA VI comes from the confirmed list in this kit's FACTS.md. The one rumor touching Vice City's size sits in a labeled table below.

Arithmetic:

Vice City shipped in North America on Oct 29, 2002. GTA VI launches Nov 19, 2026. That gap is 8,787 days, or 24 years and 21 days.
PS2 (Oct 29, 2002) to PC (May 13, 2003), both North America: 2 days to the end of October, plus 30, 31, 31, 28, 31 and 30 days for November to April, plus 13 days in May, is 196 days.
Take-Two reported over 11.5 million Vice City units in March 2004 and over 13 million in October 2004. The two lines use different verbs ("shipped", then "sold"), so we do not subtract one from the other.
Vice City Stories moved from PSP (October 2006) to PS2 (Mar 6 2007), four to five months later. Without a confirmed PSP day we cannot be more exact.

The 1997 city: one of three

The original game's three maps were based on New York, Miami and San Francisco, according to Retro Gamer's history of the series. An earlier design document for the game, then called Race'n'Chase, was posted by DMA Design veteran Mike Dailly in 2011. Engadget quoted its plan for "3 cities with a different graphic style for each city", with New York, Venice and Miami as examples. Miami made it from the pitch to the final game. Venice did not.

The 2002 city: Miami in the Eighties

GTA Vice City shipped for PS2 in North America on Oct 29, 2002, and in Europe on Nov 8. The PC version followed in North America on May 13, 2003, 196 days later. By February 2003 Take-Two called it the fastest-selling, highest-grossing PS2 game to date and the number-one selling game of 2002.

It almost was not a full game. Obbe Vermeij, a former Rockstar North technical director, wrote on his blog that Vice City was planned as a mission pack for GTA III. It became a standalone game "maybe 6 months or so" into the project, after GTA III's success (Insider Gaming, Nov 2023).

Rockstar's store copy opens "Welcome to the 1980s" and calls Vice City "a huge urban sprawl". You play Tommy Vercetti, sent south from Liberty City by his old boss Sonny Forelli. See GTA Vice City and Tommy Vercetti.

The layout, from GamesRadar+'s package guide:

Main east island: Ocean Beach, Washington Beach, Vice Point.
Three smaller islands: Starfish Island, Leaf Links, Prawn Island.
Main west island: Downtown, Little Haiti, Little Havana, Viceport.

Our observation: of these ten 2002 names, two appear in GTA VI's official copy so far, Ocean Beach and Washington Beach (see below).

The 2006 prequel: two years earlier

Vice City Stories was announced on May 10, 2006, for PSP, built by Rockstar Leeds with Rockstar North. Sam Houser called Vice City one of the audience's "favorite locales". It arrived on PSP in October 2006 and on PS2 on Mar 6, 2007 at $19.99.

It is set in 1984, two years before Vice City. You play Victor Vance, brother of Vice City's Lance Vance (GamesRadar+). See GTA Vice City Stories.

The 2026 return: Vice City, USA, in Leonida

GTA VI moves the series back to Vice City, but as part of a whole state. These are the confirmed points, all from FACTS.md:

The state is Leonida, nicknamed "the Goodtime State". The city is Vice City, USA (F43).
Vice City is one of six regions on Rockstar's site, with Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga (F44).
Smaller places in official copy include Washington Beach, Southside Vice City and the Vercetti Estate (F45), and Ocean Beach and Little Cuba on Rockstar's Only in Leonida page.
Boobie Ike is described as a "Vice City legend" (F37).
The pre-order bonus is the Vintage Vice City Pack, for orders before Nov 20, 2026 (F17).
Trailer 1 came out Dec 4, 2023 (F26). As of Oct 11, 2026, Rockstar lists two trailers and an Extended Look, and no Trailer 3 (F33).
The game launches Nov 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S (F1, F3).

More is at Leonida and GTA VI.

Vice City by version

This table is ours, built from the sources above.

Version	Game (release)	In-game year	Layout, as sourced	Analogue, as sourced	Protagonist
2D	GTA (1997)	Present day, late 1990s (GamesRadar+)	One of three cities	Miami (Retro Gamer)	Unnamed player character
3D	GTA Vice City (Oct 29 2002)	1986	Two main islands, three smaller islands	Fictionalized Miami (GamesRadar+)	Tommy Vercetti
3D	GTA Vice City Stories (October 2006)	1984	Same city, two years earlier	Miami-based (GamesRadar+)	Victor Vance
HD	GTA VI (Nov 19 2026)	Not confirmed	One of six regions of Leonida	Rockstar has not named one in our sources	Jason Duval, Lucia Caminos

Several names from 2002 show up again in GTA VI's official copy. Ocean Beach and Washington Beach were both districts on the 2002 east island. Rockstar's Only in Leonida page names Ocean Beach again, and the PlayStation Store copy names Washington Beach (F45). The radio station Flash FM, on the 2002 dial per Rockstar's 2013 playlist post, returns as "The Vice City institution" (Newswire, Oct 8 2026; F53). GTA VI's copy also names "the Vercetti Estate" (F45), which shares a surname with the 2002 protagonist. Little Cuba is not among the ten 2002 names; the 2002 west island had Little Havana. Our observation only: Rockstar has not said whether any of these is the same place or a nod to the old game.

RUMOR: what is not confirmed

Claim	Status as of Oct 11 2026	Source of the claim
GTA VI's Vice City is "2x Los Santos" in size	Secondhand and unattributed. It traces to a YouTuber's account of a Rockstar preview, and no Rockstar figure exists.	VICE, Aug 28 2026, via FACTS.md R7

Trivia

By October 2004, Take-Two counted over 13 million Vice City units sold, against over 11 million for GTA 3, the game it was first planned to extend as a mission pack.
Lucia Caminos's family has a Liberty City past (F35), and Tommy Vercetti came to Vice City from Liberty City in 2002 (Steam copy). See Liberty City.