Nightlife

Nightlife is not a side activity in this game so much as a setting. A substantial part of the Vice City story runs through venues: Boobie Ike owns a strip club and a recording studio, Dre'Quan Priest works the music side, Real Dimez perform, and Raymond's product supplies the club.

What has been shown

Lucia dancing in a club under purple light. A strip club interior with money in the air. The Jack of Hearts frontage with its pink neon. Bars in the Keys, including The Rusty Anchor. Delight's Cabaret in Port Gellhorn, with a marquee advertising new girls, new food and a hiring notice.

That last one is a very precise piece of writing. A venue advertising food and staff vacancies on the same sign is doing badly, and it tells you what Port Gellhorn is without a line of dialogue.

The series history

Grand Theft Auto has had strip clubs since the 3D era and nightclubs as an owned business since the After Hours update to Grand Theft Auto Online, which turned a venue into an income stream with a warehouse under it.

Given that Boobie Ike is introduced as somebody who converted a street reputation into a club and a studio, and that Raymond supplies him, the game appears to be building the same structure into the story rather than bolting it on afterwards.

What is not known

Whether any venue is enterable at will, whether dancing is a minigame or a cutscene, and whether clubs can be owned. Rockstar has shown the interiors and named the venues without describing anything as a system.