Despite what you may have heard, Grand Theft Auto VI is not set in Florida. The upcoming video game, insisted Rockstar Games in a press release earlier this month, takes place in “the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond.”
They also released this trailer:
So yeah, it’s South Florida — the same way that “Liberty City” is New York City and “Los Santos” is Los Angeles. Vice City, Leonida is Grand Theft Auto’s funhouse-mirror take on Miami, Florida, and for the first time in nearly two decades, Rockstar Games will be setting players in it.
But the two previous Grand Theft Auto games that took place in Vice City were set in the ‘80s, drawing obvious inspiration from Miami Vice and Scarface and evoking those pop-culture touchstones more than they did the actual city of Miami. There’s still much we don’t know about Grand Theft Auto VI, but this trailer does at least make it clear that it’s set in the smartphone era, which means its Vice City is much closer to the South Florida millions of people call home today.
So: How much does Grand Theft Auto VI’s gonzo riff on the Sunshine State actually resemble day-to-day life in Miami-Dade County in 2023? To find out, I talked to Gabrielle Calise—the culture, music, and nostalgia reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and the editor of A24’s authoritative Florida! A Hyper-local Guide to the Flora, Fauna, and Fantasy of the Most Far-out State in America —to get her take on the game.
As a Floridian, what’s your first impression of the trailer?
Well, as soon as that Tom Petty song starts up, I'm hooked. But then I was impressed that they were showing a variety of Florida landscapes. It's not just “here's the beaches, here's the condos, here’s the strip clubs.” They also show the swampier side of Florida. I'm excited to, hopefully, see more of Florida’s nature and, and some interesting Florida traditions. It looks like they really did their homework.
Any traditions in particular that stood out to you as especially true-to-life?
I thought it was really cool how they had all these guys doing rideouts. It’s this big South Florida tradition where you just get, like, hundreds of people on their bikes and they all ride together. They’ll do it holidays, or for a cause, or just because a bunch of people want to get together on their bikes.
And I have such a soft spot for gators in places where they shouldn't be. That's real, you know? We have an entire program dedicated to helping when you find an alligator. Maybe a gator in a convenience store is an extreme example, but it happens. Or in your swimming pool, or on a golf course, there’s a team of people that are dispatched to go and remove the gators.
I saw at least some of those gator clips were pulled from real-life incidents. A lot of the trailer was, actually.
There's, like, 22 million of us here. We're not all twerking on top of cars speeding down the road. But certainly, they did pull from real instances.
The “Florida Joker” has been talking about wanting to get some money from Rockstar for his in-game doppelganger.
If Lindsay Lohan couldn't get money out of Rockstar, I don't know if the Florida Joker is going to. But it seems to be good for his brand. Do you know about his lore? Like, why he looks like the Joker?
I’ve heard none of this story.
He had a very tragic past. There were, you know, things that happened to him: He lost one of his best friends, he was engaged and then he wasn’t. He got these face tattoos as a way of having a rebirth, like, “I'm not Lawrence anymore.”
I think that's what happens with a lot of these Florida men and women. It can be, in many cases, unfortunate and tragic, because one small moment or one small mistake — often with people who have mental health issues, are homeless, or are facing other obstacles — become this big national joke with no context.
That’s actually something I’ve been wondering about with Grand Theft Auto VI. The series is known for satire, not all of which has aged that well. I wonder if that “Florida Man” archetype is going to be a challenge for them to poke fun at without it feeling exploitive at the same time.
I think the Florida Man thing did reach its peak, and it already feels a little bit dated. Some of the Florida Man stories, it's like, “There was the Florida woman who planned a maternity shoot where she's holding a baby alligator.” And she’s in on the joke. But in other cases, it's just like, you know, “a naked man broke into a store so he could eat some soup.” Clearly, this is not him at his best moment, and he's going through something. There’s nothing funny about that. The Florida Man thing is still kind of happening, but I think a lot of it is coming from people that are newer to Florida or maybe just haven't yet had these conversations. Seeing how it fits into this game is going to be interesting.
Let’s say Rockstar hired you as their official Florida consultant. What minor detail would you say the game needs to have to get it right?
This is a very small detail, but I would say you have to have a million billboards, specifically. You need a bunch of lawyer billboards — ridiculous lawyer billboards.
A 90-second trailer isn’t a lot to go on, but do you have a sense of how Floridians are feeling about whether the game has captured the state or not?
Partially for reporting purposes and partially for my own morbid curiosity, I have been spending a lot of time in the comment sections on the local subreddits. A lot of people are really excited to see themselves, even if it's going to make some aspects of Florida culture the butt of the joke.
But I also think that there are aspects that make people feel seen and recognized —like the fact that they put Tom Petty in there. Especially for North Florida, he’s just such an important person. It is possible, maybe, someone just really liked the song, But he’s a Florida guy. It feels like it was done knowingly.
The Grand Theft Auto series is known for its soundtracks in general. Any other Florida artists you’d say should definitely make the cut?
If they're going to do South Florida, there's so much Miami booty bass to draw from. Doechii is my Florida artist pick for the soundtrack. She's a Tampa native, has a song with Rico Nasty called "Swamp Bitches," and twerks on top of a giant airboat during her concerts.
And when Rockstar says they’re doing “Vice City and beyond” — everything we’ve seen so far looks like South Florida, but if the game extended into the northern parts of the state, what would you hope to see?
Could you imagine if they were allowed to go to, like, a theme park? Or if they went to the Gulf Coast? Every part of Florida has its own spirit and character. I think it would be fascinating.
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