"VI" pills found at Miami Music Week spark GTA VI release date speculation

A batch of pills with a "VI" press found circulating during Miami Music Week this weekend has sparked a storm of online speculation over the potential release date for Rockstar's forthcoming video game, Grand Theft Auto VI.

Posted on Reddit community r/Vice City by user Lnce_Vnce on Saturday (March 29), the circular, white pills have the Roman numerals "VI" on the front, in a font that resembles GTA VI marketing materials, and what appears to be numbers on the back that read "01.10.2025".

If the numbers are referencing a date, this would be October 1, 2025, leading to fan speculation that the pills could be guerilla marketing to reveal the release date for the long-awaited next game in the Grand Theft Auto series, which is set to be based in "Vice City", a fictionalised version of Miami, with gameplay taking place in a criminal underworld of violence and drug dealing.

Beneath the post, Lnce_Vnce claims they found the pills inside a "mini-sandwich bag" outside "a busy nightclub in Downtown Miami" during Miami Music Week, considering it may have been strategically placed there.

The Reddit user did not specify what the contents of the pill were, leading to disagreements among commenters over whether the pills were made of ecstasy, and possibly just the result of an entrepreneuring local dealer trying to cash in on hype around GTA VI, or placebos distributed by the game's developer Rockstar to slyly tease the eagerly-anticipated launch ahead of a formal announcement.

Rockstar have previously made waves in the dance music world, teaming up with CircoLoco for the launch of a record label and creating the GTA Online After Hours update with gameplay based in clubland and starring DJs such as Dixon, Solomun, The Blessed Madonna and Moodymann, while drug trafficking missions are a fixture of the series.

Grand Theft Auto VI's debut trailer last year indicated an estimated release date of "Fall 2025", however the exact date remains a secret, with many speculating that it could be pushed back to 2026.

In an interview with Bloomberg last year, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick - who have been tasked with publishing the game on behalf of Rockstar - claimed that the date will not be revealed until "close" to the game's release to "maintain anticipation and excitement."

"We do have competitors who will describe their release schedule for years in advance, and we found that the better thing to do is to provide marketing materials relatively close to the release window in order to create that excitement on the one hand, and balance the excitement with unmet anticipation," he added.

Despite heavy peer pressure from r/Vice City posters, u/Lnce_Vnce refused to sample one of the pills and report back on its effects, saying "I'm still on a heavy comedown and contracted mild trench foot from the washout at Ultra", but promised they "might be up for a nibble" by Thursday after a couple of days of rest and 5-HTP.

One responder joked: "You might be the first person to ever feel a bit gutted while coming up if it's a real eccie."

Thomas Bullcetti is Mixmag's gaming correspondent