Gearbox's Randy Pitchford, the development chief behind the eagerly anticipated cooperative FPS Borderlands 4, has firmly stated that the decision to advance the game's release date from September 23 to September 12 was not influenced by the release schedules of other titles, such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6. This shift, sparking a wave of speculation, suggests that parent company Take-Two, which also oversees GTA developer Rockstar, might have adjusted its lineup to ensure Borderlands 4 has a better launch window. Notably, GTA 6 is still slated for a fall 2025 release.
There have been whispers that Borderlands 4's new date could be a strategic move to avoid clashing with Bungie's Marathon, another co-op focused extraction shooter. Marathon, vital for Sony-owned Bungie, was originally set to launch on the same day as Borderlands 4, September 23, 2025. Adding to the buzz, Borderlands 4 is set to be showcased in a dedicated PlayStation State of Play event on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.
In a tweet, Pitchford dismissed any suggestion that other games' release dates played a role in the decision, emphasizing instead the team's confidence in the game and its development progress. "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," he stated. "Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date."
While it's more common for games to be delayed rather than brought forward, Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, found the move curious if indeed unrelated to other game releases. "They’ve gone out with a date," Dring noted on social media. "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 surprising news of Borderlands 4's 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, which also owns Gearbox and the Borderlands IP. Take-Two is also the parent company of Rockstar, the developer behind GTA 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there's likely a strategic overview of all game releases to maximize their success.
In an interview with IGN in February, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's approach to game releases, emphasizing the need to avoid cannibalization and respect the time consumers need to enjoy each title. "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," Zelnick explained. "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 this speculation, there's also the possibility that GTA 6 might face delays, potentially shifting to early winter or into the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in hitting the fall 2025 release for GTA 6, Zelnick cautiously responded, "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."
