Is GTA 6 the same Vice City as GTA Vice City? 1986 vs 2026

GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, 8,787 days after Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hit the PlayStation 2 in North America on October 29, 2002. Same city name, same model: Miami. It is not a sequel. Tommy Vercetti lived in 1986, and Rockstar’s November 6, 2025 statement promised “a return to modern day Vice City.” Rockstar also splits the series into separate eras, Polygon noted on September 20, 2026: Vice City sits in the 3D era with GTA 3 and San Andreas, GTA 6 in the HD era with GTA 4 and GTA 5, and the stories of those eras are “completely unconnected.”

	GTA Vice City	GTA 6
Release	October 29, 2002	November 19, 2026
Launch platforms	PS2, then PC on May 13, 2003 and Xbox on November 4, 2003	PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Era	1986	modern day
Setting	Vice City alone	the state of Leonida, Vice City included
Playable characters	1: Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta	2: Jason Duval, Lucia Caminos
Wanted stars	6 at most	6 at most
Team and schedule	50 people, 18 months	not published
Budget	$5 million, plus $13.2 million in marketing	not published
Sales	17.5 million by March 2008	not published
Metacritic score	95 on PS2	pending

Vice City figures come from Wikipedia, checked on August 28, 2026, and from jeuxvideo.com for Ray Liotta. GTA 6 figures come from Rockstar Games, Take-Two, and Engadget for the wanted stars. The same grid exists for San Andreas and GTA 5, and the whole series is in our GTA series history.

One city, then a whole state

In 2002, Vice City was the entire game: a fictional city largely inspired by Miami, per Wikipedia, with Scarface (1983) and Miami Vice as open influences. Two years later, San Andreas covered 36 square kilometers, four to six times as much ground.

GTA 6 makes it the metropolis of a whole state. Rockstar’s official write-up from May 6, 2025 opens with “The glamour, hustle, and greed of America captured in a single city,” and names Ocean Beach, Little Cuba, the Tisha-Wocka flea market and the VC Port, all covered in our Vice City entry. Rob Nelson, co-studio head of Rockstar North, told Kotaku on August 27, 2026 that “Vice City itself is twice the size of Los Santos.” Rockstar has given no area figure.

No mainline game had gone back there since Vice City Stories reached the PSP on October 31, 2006. That is 7,324 days by November 19, 2026.

What GTA 6 already brings back from 2002

The first trailer, released on December 5, 2023, showed the Ocean View Hotel. IGN flagged it in its list of 99 details: it was Tommy Vercetti’s first safehouse. Rockstar reused the same pink neon sign for an official image, the one at the top of this page.

The Vintage Vice City Pack, included with every pre-order and purchase before November 20, 2026, goes further. Take-Two’s June 24, 2026 release calls it a collection of items that “flash back to when the neon burned brightest.” Rockstar Support lists three lines: a 1955 Vapid Stanier sedan and garage, outfits and hairstyles, and an exclusive weapon pattern. That pattern copies Tommy’s palm-print shirt, Gamekult reports, and the outfits put Jason in a pastel linen suit. Our pack entry has the full list.

Everything else waits for November 19, 2026. As of October 7, 2026, no first- or second-tier source mentions 1986 streets coming back or a character from the 2002 game returning. Fan sightings are tracked in our easter eggs guide.

Sales: 17.5 million as the starting line

Vice City sold 500,000 copies in 24 hours and 1.4 million in two days, a speed record at the time, then 17.5 million across platforms by March 2008, 14.2 million of them on PS2. It holds a 95 on Metacritic, the fifth-best score in the PS2 library. Take-Two has released no sales figure for GTA 6, whose standard edition costs $79.99 in the US.