Games set in Miami before GTA 6: Vice City and beyond

Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It's set in Leonida, Rockstar's version of Florida, and built around a modern Vice City, where Rockstar's own description puts its two leads on "the darkest side of the sunniest place in America." It's the series' first trip back to Vice City since 2006's Vice City Stories, and the first to bring the city into the present day.

Miami, or something very like it, has been a game setting since the first Grand Theft Auto in 1997. The short version of what follows: the two easiest to play today are Hotline Miami (short, and on almost everything) and the Definitive Edition of Vice City (patched and much improved since its rough 2021 launch). Scarface: The World Is Yours and Vice City Stories aren't sold anywhere anymore.

Games set in Miami, at a glance

Game	Year	Developer	Miami as	Where to play it now
Grand Theft Auto	1997	DMA Design	Vice City, one of three cities	Not sold; Rockstar's old free download is gone
Driver	1999	Reflections Interactive	One of four cities	Not sold on Steam or GOG
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	2002	Rockstar North	Vice City, 1986	Definitive Edition on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Switch
Scarface: The World Is Yours	2006	Radical Entertainment	Miami, after the 1983 film	Not sold; a 2025 Steam re-release was pulled
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories	2006	Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar North	Vice City, 1984	No current digital release
Hotline Miami	2012	Dennaton Games	Miami, 1989	PC (Steam, GOG), PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Battlefield Hardline	2015	Visceral Games	A Miami police drug war	PC (Steam)
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number	2015	Dennaton Games	Miami, 1985 to 1991	PC (Steam, GOG), PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Grand Theft Auto VI	2026	Rockstar Games	Vice City, today	PS5 and Xbox Series X/S from November 19

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)

Vice City came out on PS2 on October 29, 2002, a year after GTA III, and moved the series from a grey version of New York to a pastel-coloured 1986 Miami.

You played Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta, a mobster fresh out of prison and sent south to oversee a drug deal that goes wrong. The game borrowed openly from Scarface (1983) and Miami Vice, and Rockstar did field research in Miami to build the city. It had motorbikes, helicopters, properties you could buy, and a licensed soundtrack of 1980s pop, rock and hip-hop that became one of the most loved parts of the game.

It was the best-selling game of 2002, has sold more than 17.5 million copies, and still holds a 95 on Metacritic for PS2. Much of that is its sense of place: Vice City had a mood the grittier Liberty City didn't, which is why a return is such a big deal.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Definitive Edition screenshot: Tommy Vercetti outside the neon-lit Ocean View hotel

Is the Vice City Definitive Edition worth playing now?

Mostly yes, with caveats. The original Vice City was pulled from digital stores on October 13, 2021, ahead of Grove Street Games' remaster, which launched on November 11, 2021 as part of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy. The launch went badly. The collection sits at 56 on Metacritic for Xbox Series X, 54 for PS5, 49 for PC and 46 for Switch, and it was one of the lowest-scoring games of 2021.

It has improved since:

Steam, January 2023. The Definitive Editions arrived on Steam on January 19, 2023, sold as separate games.
The November 2024 update. Fixes and a lighting option closer to the original games, first made for the 2023 mobile versions, came to consoles and PC. The same update let you run and shoot at the same time in Vice City.
Netflix. Vice City and GTA III left Netflix's mobile catalogue in December 2024.

The players who bought it later seem happier than the critics who reviewed it at launch: at the time of writing, about 80% of the roughly 3,100 English-language Steam reviews for the Vice City Definitive Edition are positive. If you remember the original's hazy look fondly, some things will still feel off. But it's the only way to buy Vice City on PC or console today. We wrote about why that's a problem in game preservation can't depend on stores, and about the wider trend in why there are so many remakes.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006)

A prequel set in 1984, released on PSP on October 31, 2006 and on PS2 in March 2007. You play Victor Vance, an ex-soldier who gets pulled into the city's crime world, and it added an empire-building system that let you take over businesses around the city.

It's often overlooked because it started as a handheld game. The PS2 version came to PS3 as a PlayStation 2 Classic in April 2013 and was removed on July 24, 2017, and there's been no digital release since. It's still the other half of Rockstar's 1980s Vice City, and worth knowing about before the city comes back.

Scarface: The World Is Yours (2006)

If Vice City borrowed from Scarface, this game was the real thing. Developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi in October 2006, it imagined Tony Montana surviving the end of the 1983 film and rebuilding his drug empire in Miami. Al Pacino's likeness is in it, though not his voice.

It's an open-world game in a city that looks a lot like Vice City, and it sold more than two million copies. You can't buy it today: a re-release appeared on Steam and the Epic Games Store in October 2025 from a little-known publisher, and was quickly delisted amid questions about who was behind it.

Driver (1999) and the original Grand Theft Auto (1997)

Vice City is older than the game named after it. The first Grand Theft Auto, released in 1997, had three cities: Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City, the series' first take on Miami. Two years later, Reflections Interactive's Driver put you behind the wheel as undercover cop John Tanner, chasing through Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Neither is easy to buy today, but both show how early Miami became shorthand for crime, cars and sunshine.

Hotline Miami (2012) and Hotline Miami 2 (2015)

A completely different take. Hotline Miami, made by the two-person studio Dennaton Games (Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin), is a short, brutal, top-down action game set in Miami in 1989. You wear an animal mask, get anonymous phone calls and clear buildings in seconds, dying constantly and restarting instantly. The 2011 film Drive was one of its influences, and its electronic and synthwave soundtrack is a big part of its reputation.

It uses the same neon Miami imagery as Vice City, but twists it into something nightmarish. The sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, jumps between 1985, 1989 and 1991, with detours to Hawaii. If you want a Miami game you can finish in an evening, start with the first.

Hotline Miami screenshot: a top-down room on a checkerboard floor after a bloody fight

Battlefield Hardline (2015)

The odd one out. Visceral Games' cops-and-robbers spin-off of Battlefield gave its campaign to Nick Mendoza, a newly promoted Miami detective caught up in a drug war in 2012, with a detour to Los Angeles before the story returns to Miami. It's the most modern Miami on this list before GTA 6, and on PC it's on Steam.

Why Miami works for games

Miami gives developers a lot for free: bright colours, water, fast cars and boats, a mix of wealth and crime, and a strong image from films and television. It reads instantly on screen.

It also suits satire, which has always been central to GTA. A city built on sunshine, excess and money is easy to poke fun at, and Rockstar's own tagline for the new Vice City is about as close to a thesis as the series gets.

What's different about GTA 6's Vice City

The earlier GTA games all leaned on the 1980s. GTA 6's Leonida is modern: Vice City sits alongside Grassrivers, based on the Everglades, and the Leonida Keys, based on the Florida Keys, and the game parodies 2020s America, from social media and influencers to police body cameras. The two leads, Jason and Lucia, are a new kind of pairing for the series too.

Rockstar hasn't forgotten the old city, though. Its pre-order bonus, the Vintage Vice City Pack, promises to "flash back to when the neon burned brightest." The real Miami is joining in as well: on November 18, the night before launch, the Miami Heat will play the Milwaukee Bucks as "Vice City," VGC reported. And the description Rockstar posted with its launch trailer on October 15 opens with "Vice City, USA."

So while the name is the same, it's unlikely to be the same Vice City people remember from 2002. That's probably a good thing.

What to play before November 19

There are 28 days to go. If you want to play one of these first, Hotline Miami is the easiest: a few hours, and very different. If you want the full nostalgia trip, the Definitive Edition of Vice City is there, patched and playable. For more ideas, see what to play while you wait for GTA 6.

If you go back to Vice City after twenty years, it's worth writing down how it held up. In Perthro, your gaming journal keeps the date, the platform, your hours, a rating and a few words, so when GTA 6's Vice City arrives you'll have your own notes on the old one to compare it with.

The games that went to Miami before GTA 6