Vice City Letters on the Causeway, a Cadillac on Ocean Drive and a Club Renamed NINE1NINE: GTA 6 Marketing Goes Global

Miami has had a busy ten days. On October 27 and 28 locals posted photos of large white VICE CITY letters going up on scaffolding beside the MacArthur Causeway at Watson Island, the stretch tens of thousands of drivers use between downtown and Miami Beach, and by the evening of the 28th the lettering appeared complete. This is a different installation from the county-approved Welcome to Vice City sign on the Kaseya Center, it sits outside the city’s downtown banner zone, and as we publish neither Rockstar nor the City of Miami has said who built it. We are treating it as reported until one of them does.

On November 1 a vintage white Cadillac convertible appeared on Ocean Drive in front of the Art Deco hotels wearing pink stripes, Welcome to Vice City decals and Goodtime State licence plates, with a Tony Montana doll at the wheel and three Halloween skeletons in the back. The Scarface nod is not subtle and does not need to be: the 1983 film is the reason the first Vice City looked the way it did. And tonight, Friday November 6, E11EVEN on NE 11th Street becomes NINE1NINE, the nightclub from the game, for a full month rather than a single night. The club’s announcement has Flo Rida playing the opening, a launch party on Friday November 20 with a performer still to be named, venue signage swapped for NINE1NINE branding through December 6, real-world versions of the game’s vehicles displayed at the venue and limited-edition E11EVEN x NINE1NINE merchandise sold on site and online.

On October 28 Miami-Dade County announced a marketing package it values at $3.9 million, made up of an agreement with Rockstar plus separate advertising purchases through the companies that sell space at Miami International Airport and across the county transport system. The earlier $975,000 Kaseya Center arrangement we covered in September is folded into that total, and the county says those funds go to the long-planned park at Dan Paul Plaza behind the arena. On the list of installations: themed lighting at the airport and PortMiami, displays on the walkways from the airport garages to the terminals, and wraps on traffic signal cabinets around the county, with Rockstar covering production, installation and maintenance.

The same release notes that the cities of Miami and Miami Beach have completed their own arrangements, which is where the temporary banners downtown and the advertising on beach concession equipment come from. Put the three together and the picture is of a county that voted on this in September, argued about it, and has now decided to sell every surface it can before the 19th.

Outside Florida the campaign went global in the first week of November, mostly through fan photos posted within hours of each installation. Times Square was covered in cover art and the two leads from the last week of October. The logo ran on the pitchside boards during El Clasico on October 25. A tram in purple GTA VI livery was spotted in Hong Kong on October 31, and on November 2 a tram on Barcelona’s network ran every car wrapped in Jason, Lucia and palm trees on pink. Melbourne started a hand-painted Jason and Lucia mural on November 1 and finished it on the 4th.

November 2 was the biggest single day. Two banners went up on a corner building at Princes Street in Edinburgh, home of Rockstar North, one carrying the cover collage with the date and a “Plays best on PS5” badge, the other the two leads sitting together. Cologne got a large poster, Toronto screens around Sankofa Square, Warsaw a building wrap. London followed on November 4 with a long hoarding at Westfield Stratford, Singapore’s metro and the Les Mercuriales towers in Paris on November 5. Plenty more cities are being claimed on social media; this list sticks to the ones with clear photographs and dates.

The remaining dates are now set. Pre-load opens November 10. The Miami Heat’s Night in Vice City against the Bucks is November 18, the same day the review embargo lifts. The game launches November 19 and NINE1NINE throws its launch party on the 20th, the takeover runs to December 6, and the Wynwood Walls murals stay up until January 1, 2027.

The earlier chapters of all this are in our cars, beer and Burger Shot piece, the Wynwood Walls article and the Heat night story, so we have not repeated them here.