GTA 6 isn't out until November 19, 2026, and Rockstar has already packed its trailers, cover art and store pages with references: nods to the original Vice City, Red Dead Redemption money in a strip club, and a trailer full of real viral videos from Florida. This page collects the ones you can see in official material, says where to find them, and keeps fan theories in their own section at the end.
Vice City references Rockstar spelled out
These aren't hidden. They're in Rockstar's own descriptions of the pre-order and Ultimate Edition content.
| Item | The reference |
|---|---|
| Tropical weapon pattern (pre-order bonus) | Rockstar says it's based on Tommy Vercetti's palm-tree shirt. |
| Hawk and Little Morgan revolvers (Ultimate) | Described as "sourced from the Vercetti Estate", Tommy's mansion in the 2002 game. |
| '95 Grotti Cheetah (Ultimate) | The Cheetah was one of Vice City's signature sports cars. Rockstar calls this one an ode to Shore Drive. |
| Shitzu Squalo (Ultimate) | The Squalo speedboat is back from Vice City. |
| Vice City Style outfits (Ultimate) | Use the original Vice City logo font. |
More in our Standard vs Ultimate Edition guide.
Easter eggs in the trailers
| What | Where | The reference |
|---|---|---|
| "Uncle Jack's" sticker on a store door | Trailer 1, the convenience store robbery near the end | The face matches Everett Morgan's wanted poster in Red Dead Online. Some sites place it in Trailer 2, which is wrong. |
| Red Dead presidents on the cash | Trailer 2, the strip club money shower around 2:07 | The bills carry Hardin and Waxman, presidents from Red Dead Redemption 2's world. It's one more sign the two series share a universe. |
| Phil's Ammu-Nation ad | Trailer 2, around 2:09 | A gun store owner named Phil, in Vice City. See our Phil guide on whether he's Phil Cassidy. |
| V-Rock T-shirt | Trailer 2, on Jason | V-Rock was Vice City's rock station. The shirt doesn't confirm the station is in the game. |
| Lizard figure in a Tommy-style shirt | Trailer 2, behind the counter when Jason slaps a cashier, around 0:33 | Nobody spotted it until June 2026. |
| Ocean View Hotel | Official Vice City screenshots | The hotel is back in Ocean Beach, modeled on the real Clevelander on Ocean Drive. |
The Florida viral videos in Trailer 1
Trailer 1 recreates a string of real clips that went viral in Florida. Rockstar has never confirmed any of them, but these matches are widely agreed on:
- The woman twerking on a speeding car's roof. A 2017 video from Miami's MacArthur Causeway.
- The trapper pulling an alligator out of a pool. Several Florida pool-gator videos fit. A 2019 one from Palm Beach Gardens is the most cited.
- The alligator walking into a store on CCTV. Two candidates: a gator at an Apopka Walmart in 2013, and a teenager dumping a small gator in a Lakewood Ranch Wawa in 2018.
- The tattooed man with purple hair. Lawrence Sullivan, known online as the Florida Joker, whose 2017 Miami-Dade mugshot went viral. After the trailer came out, he publicly asked Rockstar for money.
- Dirt bikes taking over an intersection. South Florida street takeovers, including a 2023 crackdown.
- The mud park party and the man doing yard work naked. Both traced to Florida local news clips.
Two scenes people often lump in aren't from Florida: the woman with two hammers is from Los Angeles, and the man running from police in his underwear may be from Ontario.
On the cover
- The helicopter in the top-left panel is a series habit that goes back to GTA 3.
- The layout echoes the Vice City cover, with a helicopter, a bike and a cover-girl panel in similar spots. That may just be the GTA cover template.
- Raul Bautista's white suit and purple shirt look a lot like Lance Vance's outfit from Vice City. Whether that means anything for the story is pure speculation.
In the Extended Look
- Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" plays during an elevator scene. Collins had a cameo in Vice City Stories.
- Righteous Slaughter, the violent in-game shooter series from GTA 5, appears on a T-shirt and a console menu.
- A livestreamer's handle is ScooterBros, a callback to the Scooter Brothers joke that runs through GTA 4 and GTA 5. It's also the name of the app that delivers your car.
- Pißwasser, the series' parody beer, is back.
Fan theories and unconfirmed claims
- Tommy Vercetti returns. Nothing official. Rockstar has never carried a PS2-era protagonist into its newer games, and Tommy's actor, Ray Liotta, died in 2022. The Vercetti Estate mention is as close as it gets.
- You can visit the Vercetti mansion. The name is official. That it's a place in the game isn't.
- Raul is the new Lance Vance and will betray you. A theory built on the outfit.
- Various extras in the Extended Look, like a Vice City cover girl poster in Lucia's apartment or a Mr. Raspberry Jam teddy. They've been posted by fan accounts, but we haven't confirmed them frame by frame.
We'll add the ones hidden in the game itself after November 19. For the characters behind some of these, see our GTA 6 characters guides.