GTA 6 setting explained: the state of Leonida and modern-day Vice City

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

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

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

Why the setting choice matters

Vice City is the only major GTA location Rockstar has revisited across generations, and it has been more than twenty years since the last version. Bringing it back in the present day rather than the 1980s is the studio choosing a fresh reading of the place instead of nostalgia, and it is why the surrounding state matters as much as the city does.¹⁴

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

How this Vice City differs from the 2002 original, by era rather than by place

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, released in 2002, set its version of the city in a fictionalised 1986, built around cocaine-era Miami imagery: pastel suits, speedboats and a soundtrack lifted wholesale from the decade. Grand Theft Auto VI returns to the same fictional city but explicitly in the present day, which Rockstar's second delay letter called a return to modern-day Vice City. The choice trades the 1980s period piece for a contemporary crime story, which is why Rockstar's research trips, described to press, focused on today's club promoters, gun dealers and law enforcement rather than on recreating a specific decade.⁴⁵

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

Practical checklist for exploring the setting further

• Watch the Extended Look for the fullest look at Vice City's present-day tone Rockstar has released⁶
• Read the Only in Leonida page directly for the character-by-region structure rather than a summary of it³
• Treat any claim about a seventh region or a location outside these six as unconfirmed until Rockstar names it³

The distinction matters for what kind of story to expect, not just what the skyline looks like. A period Vice City trades on nostalgia and a fixed cultural moment audiences already recognise from the 2002 game. A present-day Vice City has to build its own sense of place from scratch, using modern reference points, which is presumably why Rockstar's research emphasis leaned so heavily on speaking to people living that reality now rather than researching the archives of a bygone decade.