Vice City is Rockstar's version of Miami, and for the past fortnight Miami has been returning the favour. Since October 12 the city has acquired a Grand Theft Auto blimp, a convoy of wrapped supercars with fictional licence plates, a free-entry art museum, two fast-food brands from the games serving real food inside an NBA arena, and a brewery with approved labels for the series' most famous fake beers. We have covered each of these as it happened. This is the whole picture, in order, with one caveat that applies to all of it: Rockstar Games has not acknowledged any of it on the Newswire or its official channels. Everything below is reported, and we say by whom.

The timeline

Mid-October: the sign and the permits. Dexerto reported a large illuminated Vice City sign on the Kaseya Center, the Miami Heat's arena. Earlier local reporting carried by TweakTown and Notebookcheck described "Welcome to VI" panels behind the arena and a Miami Beach commission vote approving large-scale GTA 6 advertising. Dexerto also reported that the Miami-Dade sheriff publicly objected to the idea of the city playing Vice City.

October 13: Wynwood Walls goes free. The Wynwood Walls museum began offering free admission to every Miami-Dade County resident through 2028 under a partnership it credits to Rockstar, with ten new murals by artists who appear in the game and an "Art of Vice City" merchandise line. The museum's own pages say so; Rockstar does not. Our full story has the details and the two cautions that come with them.

October 15 and 16: the cars. A convoy of real cars wrapped as GTA vehicles, with Leonida plates and a Lamborghini in police livery, was filmed around the city by local accounts and written up by IGN, Insider Gaming and Push Square, alongside clips of a Goodyear blimp carrying GTA 6 advertising and planes towing banners. The same week, Rockstar released the launch trailer, which is the one part of this fortnight that is official.

October 20: the beers. Fans found approved labels in the US TTB database for Pißwasser, Patriot and a new No Mames Vice City lager, all filed by Tripping Animals Brewing of Doral, a few miles from the arena. Dexerto, TweakTown, IGN and PC Gamer reported it; neither Rockstar nor the brewery has announced anything.

October 21 and 22: Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell. Real food stands under both brands appeared inside the Kaseya Center, replacing an existing Skinny Louie's stand. GameSpot reported combo prices of $28.50 and $31; IGN, Insider Gaming and Dexerto carried the fan photos and uniforms. GameSpot has since reported the burgers will be available in Florida through the year.

Late October: the shoot. Fan sightings of film crews and wrapped cars on a closed Miami bridge have been read as a live-action trailer in production. IGN, TweakTown and RockstarINTEL reported the sightings; nobody has confirmed what was being filmed, and it sits on our Rumor Tracker as unverified.

November 18: the Heat as Vice City. Push Square reported that the Miami Heat will play one home game as "Vice City" on the eve of launch. The fan account that first shared the food stands tied them to preparations for the same night. Neither the Heat nor Rockstar has announced it.

Why it reads as one campaign

Taken individually, each item could be a licensee, a fan or a coincidence. Taken together they share a date range, a venue and a geography: everything orbits the Kaseya Center and downtown Miami, everything landed in the four weeks before November 19, and the brands involved are ones Take-Two has historically defended. In July 2023 the publisher sent a cease and desist over a fan-run Burger Shot pop-up at Comic Con; three years later Burger Shot is selling combos in an NBA arena. The simplest explanation is that the same company is now the one running it.

It also fits the way Rockstar has marketed this game. The launch trailer arrived with no warning. The Extended Look went to Netflix before YouTube. Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick called that showcase an hors d'oeuvre with a main course to follow. A city dressed as the game, revealed piece by piece through other people's phones, is consistent with a company that prefers to let the campaign be discovered rather than announced.

What is confirmed, in one list

  • GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S; preload opens at local midnight on November 12.
  • The launch trailer, October 15, captured in-game on a standard PS5.
  • Wynwood Walls' free-admission offer and merchandise line exist and are described by the museum itself.
  • The TTB label approvals exist in a public database.
  • Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell stands exist inside the Kaseya Center and are selling food.

Not confirmed by Rockstar: that any of the above is its campaign, the Heat night, the live-action shoot, how long any of it runs, and whether anything similar is coming to another city.

What to watch

Rockstar's silence is the story's only missing piece, and it will end eventually, most likely with a Newswire post or a social post showing the city properly. We will update this feature when it does, and each of the five linked stories above will carry the change too. In the meantime, if you are in Miami-Dade, the museum is free and the burgers are $28.50.