Four votes to three. That’s how close Rockstar Games came to being told it couldn’t dress Miami Beach up as Vice City.
On September 10, the City of Miami Beach approved negotiations with the Grand Theft Auto developer, clearing the way for an ad takeover that would reportedly cost the studio $4 million. Three commissioners wanted nothing to do with it.
The commissioner who brought gameplay footage to a city meeting
Commissioner David Suarez came prepared. He pulled up GTA 5 gameplay for his colleagues, along with clips from the Extended Look, and let the footage argue for him.
“I certainly don’t want to see our brand associated with this video game, I don’t think it’s worth any amount of money,” Suarez said. He said the meeting felt like a “Black Mirror episode” and called the idea “crazy” to consider. “I think thats the wrong image for Miami Beach.”
Where the $4 million actually lands
Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt said Rockstar would spend $4 million advertising GTA 6 in Miami, with the majority of those ads going on beach chairs and umbrellas. Not skyline billboards. Umbrellas.
The agreement under discussion runs through Amplify Marketing Inc and would put the game’s branding on concession equipment on the beach, the Boucher Brothers umbrellas and chairs, starting Oct. 15.
And the city thinks it can get more. Commissioner Laura Dominguez said Miami Beach would try to push for a bigger fee, given that officials had initially wanted $3 million from the GTA creators.
A sign on the Heat’s roof
Fans have noted that Kaseya Center, home of the NBA’s Miami Heat, is set to get a “Welcome back to Vice City” sign. Per journalist Francisco Alvarado, it would sit on the arena’s roof, with pink and white lettering already being prepared, and Basketball Properties, Miami-Dade County and Rockstar are finishing up the deal.
None of that is a Rockstar announcement. It’s reporting, and the deal isn’t closed.
The sheriff isn’t having it
Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz has pushed back on the plans, claiming the game’s name promotes criminal activity.
“Miami-Dade County is a real community with real families, real neighborhoods, and real consequences when violent crime occurs,” she told NBC Miami. “Miami-Dade County is not Vice City.”
How the campaign got this big
Back in April, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that marketing for Grand Theft Auto 6 would ramp up throughout the summer. Pre-orders opened in June. The extended look arrived on Netflix on August 27.
Then came the reports that Rockstar wanted the city itself, turning Miami into a real-life Vice City with advertisements. That’s a step up from the GTA 5 banners that hung in Los Angeles before release.
There have also been reports of Miami International Airport being taken over by the ads, but that remains to be seen. Nobody involved has confirmed it.
The one thing Rockstar has said out loud
On GTA Online in GTA 6, the studio offered a sliver: it called the mode a “closely guarded secret” while suggesting lobbies of 32 players.
Everything else is a negotiation. Suarez showed his colleagues a clip of a man shooting at a police vehicle, and four of them voted yes anyway, because the number attached to it was $4 million and the city thinks it should be higher.
If the deal closes, the tourists renting those chairs on Oct. 15 will be sitting under the logo.
