Screenshots
The Verdict
Pre-orders went live at midnight on June 25, and yes, I was awake for it, because I am the one cynic on this site who actually wants your game. Standard is $79.99, Ultimate is $99.99, and you dropped 63 fresh screenshots that make Vice City look like the most lived-in open world ever built. For about four minutes it was perfect. Then I read the editions page.
The Ultimate Edition does not just hand you premium cars and a tattoo collab with FAILE. It unlocks entire in-game stores inside the singleplayer story: Rideout Customs, Sara's Unisex Salon, exclusive streetwear shops, all woven into the campaign you already paid eighty dollars for. You did not put cosmetics behind a paywall, you put the shops themselves behind one. In a story mode. Twenty extra dollars to be allowed to spend imaginary money in your own game.
Then there is the box that is not a box. The Standard physical edition is a code in a case, the Ultimate is digital only, and there is no disc anywhere in the building. Two retailers are already refusing to stock it until an actual disc exists, and you let that be the headline on pre-order week. Add the December delay whispers you are doing nothing to quiet, and the rollout is fighting the game. The bright side never wavers though: under all of it, you still made the one thing I have been refreshing the Rockstar Store for since 2013. Fix the velvet rope and I am yours.
What it nails
- ▲The reveal itself: 63 brand new screenshots, and Vice City looks like the most detailed, lived-in open world anyone has ever shot.
- ▲Pre-orders are finally, genuinely real after years of rumor, with a date you can actually circle on November 19 2026.
- ▲The Vintage Vice City Pack as a pre-order sweetener is a fair bonus, not a hostage situation, and it is free if you order before launch.
- ▲$79.99 for the Standard edition is, depressingly, the restrained option in 2026, when half the internet expected a flat hundred across the board.
What it botches
- ▼Locking in-game stores like Rideout Customs and Sara's Unisex Salon inside the singleplayer campaign behind the $99.99 tier. Paywalling shops in a story you already bought is a new low dressed as a premium.
- ▼No physical disc anywhere: the Standard physical is a code in a box and the Ultimate is digital only, so collectors are paying full price for air.
- ▼Two retailers are publicly refusing to sell it until there is a real disc, and you let that become the story during the single biggest pre-order window of the decade.
- ▼The December delay rumors you are doing absolutely nothing to put down, after already sliding off May 26. Silence is not reassurance.
Who it's for
Anyone who has been refreshing the Rockstar Store since 2013 and will pay whatever Vice City asks, twice.
Who should skip
Disc collectors, anyone allergic to tiered editions, and anyone who believes a singleplayer story mode should not have a gift shop with a bouncer.
The whole story lives on the hub