‘Miami-Dade County is not Vice City’: GTA 6 is taking over Miami—and dividing the county

Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI doesn’t come out for another month, but Miami is already starting to look a lot like Vice City.

The hype around the game is hard to overstate.

It arrives Nov.

19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S after two delays, and eight years after Rockstar’s last major release, Red Dead Redemption 2 .

Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company, has never disclosed what the game cost to make, and it declined to confirm a figure to Fortune earlier this year.

But a ranking compiled by gaming platform Zero1 Gaming puts its combined development and marketing budget at roughly $2 billion, making it the most expensive video game ever made.

Market research firm Newzoo projects the game could generate between $3.25 billion and $5.2 billion in its first week, based on early pre-order data.

Some employers are already planning around the launch; one U.S.

Army unit is even offering days off to play it.

Beyond the virtual Vice City, Rockstar’s marketing push is aimed squarely at the real city that inspired it.

Not everyone in Miami-Dade County government is happy about that.

The county’s pitch On June 29, Miami-Dade officials submitted a pitch deck to Rockstar outlining potential promotional activations on county property, according to documents obtained by The Miamian through a public records request.

The concepts included a “Vice City Airport” arrival experience at Miami International Airport, Metromover cars wrapped in Vice City branding, a mural at PortMiami, custom manhole covers in downtown Miami and Brickell, and a car-culture festival at Tropical Park.

The mayor’s office framed the idea as a way to make money.