Is GTA 6 a remake of Vice City?

What does Rockstar call GTA 6?

A new game. In its statement on the most recent delay, which Video Games Chronicle reported in November 2025, Rockstar said players would experience “the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern day Vice City.” Notice the word modern: this is the city as it is now, not as it was.

Rockstar’s Only in Leonida page makes the same point in the Vice City profile: “We’re a long way from the ’80s, but Vice City is still the sun and fun capital of America.” The same page presents Vice City as one part of a larger state, so the new game is not confined to the city. Our Vice City page covers the place itself.

What was the 2002 Vice City?

It was a separate game, and it is history now. Rockstar and Take-Two announced in October 2002 that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City had shipped for PlayStation 2, as the follow-up to Grand Theft Auto 3. IGN’s review from that month describes a game set in the 1980s, borrowing from Scarface and Miami Vice, with Ray Liotta voicing Tommy Vercetti.

That setting is the main difference. The 2002 game was a period piece, while GTA 6 has Jason and Lucia in the present day. Our page on the original has the history, and the Vice City comparison lines the two up.

Is the Definitive Edition the remake people mean?

It may be what some people mean, but it has nothing to do with GTA 6. A Rockstar Newswire post dated October 22, 2021 announced Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, The Definitive Edition, bundling III, Vice City and San Andreas, digitally from November 11, 2021 and in boxed copies from December 7. Rockstar describes the three as enhanced versions of the original games, brought to current hardware by Grove Street Games in Unreal Engine. It doesn’t call the collection a remake.

Our Definitive Edition page tracks where it can be played. Rockstar hasn’t announced any other remake of Vice City, and nothing we’ve read says GTA 6 is built from the 2002 game.

Is GTA 6 set in the present day?

Rockstar hasn’t named an in-game year, but it calls the setting modern day. Our answer on what year GTA 6 is set in goes through what Rockstar’s team has said.

What we don’t know yet

Rockstar hasn’t said whether any places, characters or storylines from the 2002 game appear in GTA 6, or whether the two are connected in the story. It also hasn’t said how much of Vice City’s layout is new. Until the game is out, the safe description is a new game in a modern Vice City, and anything about hidden ties to the old one is speculation.