Why I think Vic dies:

Retcon.
They make VC and the guy at the start dies because R* never planned to make him a character in a later GTA.But when they decide to make the chracter Vic as the lead in a prequel, they aren't going to make you play as a hunched over guy who can barely walk, so they drastically change him to make him a more appealing lead.

Remember in GTA 3 where Claude 'Fido' Speed gets a message from Ray Machowski saying that he will meet Claude in Miami.
They used Miami because they didn't have a made up name for Miami (or at least they didn't plan on calling it Vice City from GTA1) at that time so only in Vice City is it called VC and not Miami.


Now in VCS, Lance is always complaing about Vic treating him like a child.Well in VC he tells Tommy not to treat him like a kid because his brother WOULD do that which may suggest that Vic is no longer alive which would likely mean that it is Vic that dies in the beginning of VC.

VICTOR VANCE DIED IN 1986 DURING A DRUG DEAL GONE WRONG!!!!!

quote BigBhaarlokzMon

I find it a bit weird that Rockstar would have Vic Vance as the guy you play as in GTA: VCS when, if you look at the opening cutscene (which I didn't the first time round), Vic dies and we already know that when playing VCS... something like that. It'd be like playing as CJ's dad in San Andreas Stories (are R* making that?) because CJ's dad is dead at the start of the original SA.

even though vcs cam out after vc, vcs takes place 2 years before vc