Randy Pitchford: Borderlands 4 Release Date Unaffected by Other Games

Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to advance the release date of the highly anticipated cooperative first-person shooter, Borderlands 4, was not influenced by the release schedules of other major titles like Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6. Originally slated for a September 23 release, Borderlands 4 will now hit the shelves on September 12, available across multiple platforms including PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The 11-day shift in release date sparked rumors that the move was strategically planned to avoid clashing with Grand Theft Auto 6, which is set to launch in the fall of 2025. Speculation intensified given that both Borderlands 4 and GTA 6 are under the umbrella of Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Gearbox and Rockstar Games, respectively. Furthermore, there was chatter about a potential conflict with Bungie's Marathon, another co-op focused extraction shooter, which was also scheduled for a September 23 release. Borderlands 4 will receive its own dedicated PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

However, Pitchford took to social media to clarify the situation, emphasizing that the early release of Borderlands 4 was purely a result of confidence in the game's development progress and 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. He further stressed that the decision was "literally 0% about any other product's actual or theoretical launch date."

While it's not uncommon for game release dates to be adjusted, advancing a release date is less typical than delays. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about Pitchford's claims. "They've gone out with a date," Dring noted. "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 news of the new release date with enthusiasm. "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." He added with excitement, "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 Interactive, which also owns Gearbox and the Borderlands IP. Take-Two is also the parent company of Rockstar Games, the developer behind Grand Theft Auto 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is a comprehensive understanding of the company's game portfolio and a strategic approach to release timing to maximize each game's success.

In a February interview with IGN, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's strategy to avoid cannibalization of their titles. "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," he said. "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 surrounding Borderlands 4's release date shift, there is also talk about potential delays for Grand Theft Auto 6, possibly moving into early winter or the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in hitting the fall 2025 release for GTA 6, Zelnick responded cautiously, "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."