Randy Pitchford, the head of development at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to advance the release of Borderlands 4 was not influenced by the release schedules of other games, despite rumors suggesting it might have been adjusted to avoid clashing with titles like Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6.
Originally set for September 23, Borderlands 4 will now hit the shelves on September 12, available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2. This shift of 11 days led to speculation that the move was made to steer clear of GTA 6, which is slated for a fall 2025 release, and is published by Take-Two, the same parent company that owns Gearbox and the Borderlands franchise.
There were also whispers that the release adjustment might have been to avoid a direct competition with Bungie's Marathon, another co-op focused extraction shooter. Marathon, a key project for Sony-owned Bungie, was initially scheduled to launch on the same day as Borderlands 4, September 23, 2025. Amidst this, Borderlands 4 is set to be showcased in a PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.
However, Pitchford took to social media to clarify that the decision to bring Borderlands 4 forward was solely based on "confidence" and the game's "development trajectory."
"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," Pitchford tweeted. "Our decision is literally 0% about any other product's actual or theoretical launch date."
While it's not uncommon for game release dates to be adjusted, moving them forward is less frequent than delays. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed his surprise at the move, stating that if the decision wasn't influenced by other games' release dates, it seemed "a bit odd."
"They’ve gone out with a date," Dring commented. "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 released early, Pitchford shared the exciting news about the new release date for Borderlands 4. "Everything is going great, actually," he said. "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, a subsidiary of Take-Two, which also owns Gearbox and the Borderlands IP. Take-Two also oversees Rockstar Games, the developer of GTA 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there's an awareness of all games under the Take-Two umbrella, and a strategic approach to ensure each game's success.
In a February interview with IGN, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's release planning to avoid cannibalization, emphasizing that timing is driven by respect for the consumer's need to fully engage with each title.
"No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," Zelnick stated. "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 these discussions, there's also speculation about potential delays for GTA 6, which might push its release into early winter or even the first quarter of 2026.
"Look, there's always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things," Zelnick responded cautiously when asked about GTA 6's fall 2025 target. "So we feel really good about it."
