Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to release Borderlands 4 earlier than initially planned was not influenced by the release dates of other games, such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6. Originally slated for September 23, Borderlands 4 will now launch on September 12 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2. This change prompted speculation that the move was strategically made to avoid competition with GTA 6, which is still set to launch in the fall of 2025, and Marathon, a co-op focused extraction shooter from Bungie, which was scheduled for the same release date as Borderlands 4.
In a tweet, Pitchford emphasized that the decision to move the release date forward was driven by "confidence" in the game and its development trajectory, rather than any external factors. He stated, "Borderlands 4 shipping early is 100% the result of confidence in the game and development trajectory backed by actual tasks and bug find/fix rates. Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date."
Despite Pitchford's assurances, the move has been seen as unusual in the gaming industry, where delays are more common than early releases. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about the decision, noting the logistical challenges of changing a release date that had already been widely publicized. He tweeted, "They’ve gone out with a date. It’s on calendars, market materials, social assets... Put ‘Borderlands 4 release date’ into Google and it still says Sep 23. There’s surely got to be a good commercial reason to shift a date."
In a video message, Pitchford shared the news of the earlier release date, expressing excitement about the game's progress and the team's performance. He said, "Everything is going great, actually. In fact, everything is going kind of the best-case scenario. The game is awesome, the team is cooking, and so the launch date for Borderlands 4 is changing. We’re moving it forward. The launch date is now September 12. What?! This never happens you guys! This never happens! We’re moving the launch date forward! You’re gonna get Borderlands 4 earlier!"
It's important to note that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, which, along with Gearbox and the Borderlands IP, is owned by Take-Two. Take-Two is also the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar. At the executive level, CEO Strauss Zelnick and other leaders are aware of the development status of all the company's games and aim to optimize their release schedules to maximize success.
In an interview with IGN in February, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's strategy for managing release dates to avoid cannibalization, stating, "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem. And what we found is when you're giving consumers hits, they tend to be interested in pursuing other hits. In other words, I've said this many times, even when the hits aren't ours, they're a good thing for the industry. In this case, we hope that the hits will largely be ours. So we feel really good about it and I think that we will time our releases so as to respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next."
Amidst the speculation about Borderlands 4's release date, there is also talk about potential delays for GTA 6, which might shift into early winter or the first quarter of 2026. Zelnick responded cautiously to questions about GTA 6's release timeline, saying, "Look, there's always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things. So we feel really good about it."
Borderlands 4 is set to have its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST, providing more details and excitement for fans eagerly awaiting its earlier-than-expected release.
