From Tommy Vercetti to Jason and Lucia, how Vice City has changed in GTA

GTA 6 is the fourth time Rockstar has taken us to Vice City, its take on Miami: the city was already in the very first GTA in 1997, took centre stage in GTA: Vice City in 2002 and came back in Vice City Stories in 2006. Along the way there were mobile ports, a controversial remaster and even a Netflix version. We go through every visit: when it came out, what year it was set in, who starred in it and what changes now with Jason and Lucia.

How many GTA games feature Vice City?

Four, not counting re-releases, and each one shows it in a different era. The original Grand Theft Auto (1997) set it in its own present, with a protagonist you picked at the start. GTA: Vice City (2002) went back to 1986 with Tommy Vercetti, and its prequel, GTA: Vice City Stories (2006), went back further still, to 1984, with Victor Vance. GTA 6 (2026) finally brings it to the present day, with Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.

1997: the first Vice City, seen from above

Plenty of people have forgotten, but Vice City was already in the first Grand Theft Auto, the 1997 game with its top-down camera. It was one of its three cities, alongside Liberty City and San Andreas, the three names Rockstar has been reusing ever since for New York, Miami and California. That Vice City was little more than a grid of palm-lined streets: the studio hadn't yet given it a personality.

2002: GTA Vice City, the game that made the city a legend

The Vice City everyone remembers arrived on PS2 on 29 October 2002 in North America and 8 November in Europe, followed by PC and Xbox. Rockstar revived the name from the 1997 game and turned it into a love letter to the 1980s: neon, pastel suits, sports cars and an atmosphere lifted straight from Scarface and Miami Vice.

Tommy Vercetti's story

The protagonist is Tommy Vercetti, a Liberty City mobster who gets out of prison after 15 years and is sent by his bosses to Vice City in 1986 to close a drug deal. The deal goes wrong, he loses the money and the goods, and from there he builds his own criminal empire in the city. He was voiced by Ray Liotta, the Goodfellas actor, who died in 2022.

A movie-worthy cast

Vice City was one of the first games to go all in on well-known actors for its voices:

• Philip Michael Thomas, Detective Tubbs in Miami Vice, as Lance Vance, Tommy's partner.
• Burt Reynolds as Avery Carrington, a property tycoon.
• Gary Busey as Phil Cassidy, the arms dealer who seems to reappear in GTA 6.
• Tom Sizemore as Sonny Forelli, Tommy's mob boss.
• Luis Guzmán, Fairuza Balk, William Fichtner and Robert Davi, among others.

+2

The most memorable soundtrack in the series

Much of Vice City's fame comes from its radio: more than a hundred '80s songs spread across stations such as Flash FM (pop), V-Rock (rock and metal), Fever 105 (funk and disco) and Wildstyle (hip-hop), plus talk shows and ads. Flash FM is one of the stations returning in GTA 6, as we cover in the GTA 6 radio stations.

A historic hit

GTA Vice City sold 1.4 million copies in its first two days in the US, according to TechSpot, and was the best-selling game of 2002 there. By March 2008 it had reached 17.5 million across all platforms. It also holds a 95 on Metacritic on PS2, one of the highest scores in the whole series.

2006: Vice City Stories, the prequel

Four years later, Rockstar returned to the city with GTA: Vice City Stories, released on PSP in October 2006 and on PS2 in March 2007. It's a prequel: it's set in 1984, two years before the original.

The protagonist is Victor Vance, a soldier thrown out of the army and Lance's brother. He's a character with a twist for fans: in GTA Vice City, Victor dies in the game's very first scene, during the drug deal that goes wrong. Vice City Stories tells what happened before. Familiar faces such as Lance and Phil Cassidy also appear, and the game let you set up businesses all over the city.

The re-releases: mobile, remaster and Netflix

• 2012, tenth anniversary: Vice City arrived on iOS and Android in December 2012, with touch-screen controls.
• 2021, The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition: on 11 November 2021, a remaster of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas came out for PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch and PC. The criticism of its technical problems at launch was so strong that Rockstar had to apologise.
• 2023, Netflix: since 14 December 2023, the trilogy can be played on mobile at no extra cost with a Netflix subscription.

What's different about Vice City in GTA 6?

Almost everything, starting with the era. GTA 6's Vice City is set in the present day, forty years after Tommy's, and you can see it in every shot of the trailers: phones filming everything, social media and influencers instead of pastel suits and brick phones. What doesn't change is the spirit: excess, fast money and a satire of Miami, with Ocean Drive, the neon and the beaches.

Other clear differences:

• It's no longer just a city. Vice City is the main city of Leonida, a whole state with keys, swamps and rural areas. It's all in the GTA 6 map and the real Florida locations that inspire it.
• Two protagonists, as a couple. Instead of a lone gangster, Jason and Lucia, a couple getting by one job at a time.
• A female lead. Lucia is the first female protagonist of a modern GTA, something the series hadn't had since it left the top-down camera behind.
• A different universe. Everything suggests GTA 6 belongs to the «HD» universe of GTA IV and GTA V, so it isn't a continuation of Tommy's story.

Do you need to play the earlier games before GTA 6?

No. GTA 6 tells a new story and you don't need to know Tommy Vercetti to follow it. But if you want to catch every nod, GTA Vice City is still well worth playing: it's in The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on PS5, PS4, Xbox, Switch and PC, on mobile with Netflix and in the GTA+ games library. And if you pre-order GTA 6, the Vintage Vice City pack includes clothes, a car and a garage inspired by the original.