After years of rumours, speculations, and even a honking great leak, Rockstar finally announced Grand Theft Auto 6 in late 2023. The trailer was instantly broken-down and pored over, with one theme in particular being how closely Rockstar had hewed to the real-life viral craziness that can be found in Miami, Florida (such as the Florida Joker, who thinks they owe him a cheque) as well as the combination of stunning high-end living and swamplands where you need to chase off gators with a frying pan.
A French YouTuber with a long history in the GTA scene, CyrilMP4, has released a new video in which they and some buddies go to Miami and check out / recreate parts of the GTA 6 trailer. The video description reads “I spent 24 hours in GTA 6 Miami (Vice City!)” and is essentially Cyril and crew wandering around the city identifying the landmarks and locations used in both the original Vice City and seen in the trailer for GTA 6. They’re incredibly good at it and, even if you already kinda knew how seriously Rockstar takes its work, it’s stunning to see the side-by-side comparison.
The full video is a more leisurely stroll (though it’s in French, YouTube can auto-translate English subtitles) but it’s CyrilMP4’s supercut of certain shots that really takes the breath away. Unfortunately that’s time-limited so as not to fall afoul of copyright strikes, but you can easily see how the whole GTA 6 trailer could be recreated like this.
A French YouTuber went to Miami and reshot the GTA VI trailer from r/GTA6
“This maybe was the first time I thank op for adding which is irl and which is trailer,” says Blanktwgok. That’s a good gag but, really, the reactions to this do largely fall along the lines of disbelief at the similarities and the kind of changes made in something like GTA 6: in almost every scene you’ll see reality is much more desaturated, and there’s no such thing as ray tracing either.
GTA 6 is due for release in 2025. Except probably not on PC: if Rockstar stays true to past form, we’ll have something of a wait after the console release. There’s plenty in the trailer to chew on in the meantime, but if CyrilMP4’s video does anything it emphasises what a colossal recreation task Rockstar has set itself with GTA 6. This developer makes the greatest open-world games, period. And in the cultural and visual fidelity of the parallels it’s creating between Miami and this version of Vice City, it’s clearly out to de-throne itself.