WWE had been trying to trademark the term ‘Vice City’ and has just abandoned plans for doing so, most likely influenced by the upcoming release of Rockstar’s GTA 6 this year which is easily the biggest and most anticipated videogame of all time. Based on a recent filing, WWE had made the initial application for the trademark on August 8 which was deemed “dead’ just over a month later on September 21.
And although it’s currently unknown as to why WWE was looking to trademark the same name which has been long associated with the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise (courtesy of the PS2 era classic GTA: Vice City), however, it may be cause of an attempt to base something around Lola Vice, a superstar who had been recently promoted to the main roster. Also, the wrestler is from Miami, Florida, which is the real-life inspiration behind GTA 6’s Vice City, the gigantic open world that’s destined to create new benchmarks in the industry for it’s realism, density and sheer scale for years if not decades.
And though WWE’s reasons for abandoning the ‘Vice City’ trademark is unknown, it’s more than likely cause it’s going to create a great deal of confusion and possible conflict when Rockstar Games unleashes it’s own version of Vice city with GTA 6 this year. So for now, it’s safe to say that there’s only one Vice City, and it belongs to the newest entry of the Grand Theft Auto series of games.
In other news of GTA 6, Rockstar has also recently issued mod guidelines for content creators and the studio stated: “Respect Our Games. Rockstar Games creates unique worlds, characters, and stories, which form the official continuity of our games. Like all creators, we have the right to set limits on how others can use our games and brand.” The developer also specifically said not to “expand modify Rockstar Games’ official storylines, plots, missions, characters, or other elements of our established continuity,” and in addition, not to create mods combining maps and other locations in the game which would distort multiple elements of the next Grand Theft Auto.
GTA 6 is currently slated to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026.
