How to Play Vice City Now: Official Re-releases

3 September 2026 · 7 min read

Vitalij Pobereznik · how we check facts

Right now, what you can officially buy isn’t a standalone Vice City — it’s the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition bundle, sold on both PlayStation Store and Xbox Store. Below is a comparison of the options, then a breakdown of each one.

Comparison: what’s sold where

Three rows, three different situations. Let’s go through them one at a time.

First row: the bundle on PlayStation Store

The bundle’s page on PlayStation Store carries both PS5 and PS4 tags. That’s the key practical detail if you own a current-gen console: there’s no separate “PS5 remaster” to search for, and no need to check whether backward compatibility will cause issues. One product covers both generations.

For you, that means a simple scenario: log into the store with your account, buy the bundle, install it on whichever console is already hooked up to your TV. The game doesn’t require any extra hardware or a separate version.

If you’re still deciding what to actually play on in the near future, that’s a separate topic covered in our console guide.

Second row: the same bundle on Xbox Store

The Xbox Store page lists a base price of $59.99, with Rockstar Games as publisher. This isn’t “some third-party studio’s remaster” — it’s an official product from the series’ own publisher.

One warning about the price, since it’s the easiest spot to get burned. $59.99 is the base price shown on the store page. It’s not automatically the number you’ll see on your own account: the figure for your region depends on your account’s country, local currency, and whether a discount is running at that moment. We won’t convert this into any other currency or offer an “approximate” equivalent — any such figure would be invented.

One more thing this page doesn’t tell you: a list of supported Xbox models. We’re not listing one, because our sources don’t include it. If you want precision, check the platform tags directly on the product page.

Third row: we can’t confirm a standalone original Vice City

This is the question people who remember the game from childhood ask most: where can you just buy the same old version, without the reworked graphics?

The honest answer: the official pages we rely on only show The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition bundle. There’s no separate page for the original Vice City in what we found. That’s not the same as saying “Rockstar pulled it” — we haven’t seen that claim and we’re not repeating it. The distinction matters: one is “no confirmed sale exists,” the other is “sale has stopped.” We’re stating the former.

What that means practically: if you specifically want Vice City, and specifically want it legally, the working route is the one described above — the bundle. We’re not covering fan ports or “repacks,” and we won’t link to any.

How the re-release differs from the original — per the publisher’s own description

The official re-release description lists a few changes. Paraphrasing:

• Lighting and environments. New lighting and reworked environments are claimed.
• Textures. High-resolution textures are claimed.
• Draw distance. It’s claimed to be extended — meaning distant objects are visible further out than before.
• Controls. The controls are claimed to be modelled on Grand Theft Auto V.

That last point is the one that changes how the game actually feels in your hands, not just on screenshots. If you’ve played the fifth game, you know its control scheme — that’s what the re-release was built around.

Whatever isn’t on this list, we don’t write about. Our sources say nothing about frame rate, resolution, download size, or performance modes across different consoles. If any of those specifics matter to you, check the game’s listing in your own store rather than trusting numbers from forums.

Which option fits you

You want Vice City specifically and nothing else. You still end up buying the bundle — we have no confirmed way to buy just that one game on its own. The other two titles simply come along with it.

You want to play through the classics before the new game launches. The bundle covers three games at once: Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Whether you actually need to play the old games before the new one is a separate question, covered in our guide on whether you need to play GTA 5 first. Short version: nobody requires it.

You’re playing on PS5. Your scenario is the simplest one — the PS5 and PS4 tags on the page mean there are no extra conditions to worry about.

You specifically want the original graphics. We can’t help much here: the re-release is a re-release, and all four changes listed above are already baked in. Comparing “which looked better” without official wording to go on isn’t something we’ll do.

You’re interested in the new Vice City, not the old one. That’s an entirely different product and a different guide — see our piece on the Vice City region in GTA 6. Don’t mix them up: the classics bundle has nothing to do with the new game, and none of our sources make any claim linking the two.

What we’re not claiming

• That the bundle costs exactly $59.99 in your region. That’s the base price from the Xbox Store page, nothing more.
• That the standalone original Vice City has been pulled from sale. We’re only saying we have no confirmation it’s sold.
• That the bundle runs on any specific Xbox model. We don’t have platform tags beyond what’s on that page.
• That the re-release includes anything beyond the four changes listed. The description names those — we stay silent on the rest.

How to check all of this yourself in a few minutes

The most reliable check is the one you do from your own account, since the store shows your actual terms:

1. Log into your console’s store — PlayStation Store or Xbox Store — using the account you’ll actually buy with. Price and availability are calculated from your account’s country, not your physical location.
2. Find the page for The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Search for that exact name: the bundle is sold as a single product.
3. Check the platform tags on the listing. They show which console generation the game will run on.
4. Look at the price on the listing itself, not in someone else’s article. Discounts come and go, and no outside piece knows what your store is showing right now.
5. Read the official description all the way through. The list of graphical changes is right there — that’s the primary source, not a retelling.

The same logic applies to future purchases too: when it comes to pricing and pre-orders for the new game, the only number worth trusting is the one showing in your store’s listing at the moment you pay.