Where is GTA 6 set? Leonida, modern Vice City and the link to the 2002 game

Grand Theft Auto VI is set in the fictional state of Leonida, and its centrepiece is a modern-day Vice City. Rockstar established both in the Newswire post that accompanied Trailer 1 on December 5, 2023, describing Leonida as home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond.¹

In short: GTA 6 is set in Leonida, a fictional version of Florida, in the present day. Vice City, the series' take on Miami, is its biggest city but no longer the whole map, and the game is a new story rather than a sequel to the 2002 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City³⁴⁶.

Leonida is a state, not a city

This is the difference that matters. Vice City in the 2002 game was essentially the whole map. In Grand Theft Auto VI, Vice City is one part of a state, and Rockstar's second delay letter used the phrasing "the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern day Vice City" to make that distinction.⁴

The six regions Rockstar names

The official Only in Leonida page invites players to explore six areas by name: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga. Each is presented alongside a character connected to it, which suggests the map is structured around distinct social worlds rather than one city with filler around it.³

• Vice City, the flagship urban area and the tone-setter for the whole game³
• Leonida Keys, where Jason has been working for local drug runners³
• Grassrivers, tied to the Real Dimez rap duo in Rockstar's presentation³
• Port Gellhorn, introduced alongside career bank robber Raul Bautista³
• Ambrosia, presented with Keys smuggler Brian Heder³
• Mount Kalaga, the natural counterweight to the city³

Modern day, and what that implies

Rockstar's own copy calls this a return to modern-day Vice City. Trailer 2's description leans on that: an easy score that goes wrong and a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state, with Jason and Lucia forced to rely on each other. Rockstar's marketing line for the whole setting is "the darkest side of the sunniest place in America".²⁴⁶

Is GTA 6 a sequel to Vice City?

No, not in any narrative sense. It is a new story with new protagonists, set in the present day, in a city that shares a name and a coastline with the 2002 game⁶³⁷. Rockstar's official premise names only Jason and Lucia, an easy score that goes wrong and a conspiracy across Leonida, with no reference to the events of the 2002 game and no mention of Tommy Vercetti⁶³. Rockstar has never called GTA VI a sequel, prequel or continuation in any official material.

There is a genuine, official continuity nod. Rockstar's Ultimate Edition listing describes a pair of Hawk & Little Morgan revolvers with classic Vice City styling sourced from the Vercetti Estate, complete with palm-tree-etched grips⁶. The Vercetti Estate is Tommy Vercetti's mansion from the 2002 game, so this is Rockstar deliberately placing that history inside GTA 6's world⁷⁸.

The series has never run a single continuous timeline. Liberty City has appeared as three different maps across three different eras, San Andreas has been both a state and a city, and none of those versions share a plot⁷. Reusing a city name in Grand Theft Auto signals a tone and a geography, not a sequel⁷.

What does carry across is furniture: brands, radio conventions, shop chains and in-jokes. Rockstar's GTA VI material already names long-running fictional marques such as Vapid, Grotti, Pegassi and Hawk & Little, which places the game in the same commercial universe without placing it in the same story⁶.

GTA V is the clearest precedent. Its state of San Andreas and city of Los Santos had appeared nine years earlier in GTA: San Andreas, with a different protagonist, a different map and no shared plot, and nobody calls GTA V a sequel to it⁹.

If you have never touched a Grand Theft Auto game, GTA VI is a clean entry point. There is no plot to catch up on, no returning cast to recognise, and the official premise introduces both protagonists from scratch⁶³.

If you played the 2002 game, expect recognition rather than resolution: a hotel you remember, a street layout that rhymes, and an item description that acknowledges Tommy Vercetti existed⁶⁷. That is the whole of the confirmed connection⁶.

How much of this is real-world Florida

Leonida is fiction, and Rockstar's own legal boilerplate insists the game is fictional and any similarity to real places is coincidental. That said, the studio told press it spent years researching on the ground in Miami and the surrounding areas, met ex-criminals, law enforcement, club promoters and gun dealers, and brought in more than fifty street artists to design in-game murals. The inspiration is not a secret; the one-to-one mapping is not something Rockstar endorses.⁵

Who Rockstar has attached to the setting

The Only in Leonida page is built around people rather than geography, which is a hint about how the map is meant to be read. Jason Duval is introduced as someone who grew up around grifters, served in the Army and ended up in the Keys working for local drug runners. Lucia Caminos is introduced as a fighter taught by her father, released from the Leonida Penitentiary, whose family came from Liberty City.³

Around them Rockstar names supporting figures tied to specific regions: club and record label owner Boobie Ike, music mogul Dre'Quan Priest, the rap duo Real Dimez, career bank robber Raul Bautista and veteran Keys smuggler Brian Heder. Each is presented as a doorway into a part of the state.³

Why Leonida is not just a bigger Vice City

The structure Rockstar has published, one flagship city plus five named outlying regions each with its own characters, points at a game about a state rather than a city. Rockstar's own framing of the story reinforces it: a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida, not a turf war inside one neighbourhood. How much time the game actually spends outside Vice City is not something Rockstar has said.²³

Common misconceptions about the setting, debunked

• "Vice City is the whole map, like in 2002." No; Vice City is one of six named regions inside the larger state of Leonida.³
• "Leonida is just Florida with a different name slapped on it." Rockstar's legal framing insists it is fictional, though it is openly inspired by years of research around Miami.⁵
• "The setting is period, like the 1980s Vice City." No; Rockstar explicitly frames this as a modern-day return.⁴