Randy Pitchford: Borderlands 4 Release Date Unaffected by Other Games

Randy Pitchford, the head of development at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to release Borderlands 4 earlier than anticipated was not influenced by the release dates of other games, despite rumors suggesting adjustments due to 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 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The 11-day shift in release date fueled speculation that the move was to avoid a clash with GTA 6, which is still scheduled for a fall 2025 launch. Both games are under the Take-Two umbrella, leading to theories that the company might be strategically spacing out its releases. Additionally, there was chatter about a potential conflict with Bungie's Marathon, another co-op focused shooter set for the same original release date of September 23, 2025. Borderlands 4 will be highlighted in its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

However, Pitchford took to Twitter to dispel these rumors, emphasizing that the decision to advance Borderlands 4's release was purely based on "confidence" in the game and its development progress. 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."

While moving a game's release date forward is less common than delays, Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, found the decision curious if indeed unrelated to other game releases. He pointed out the logistical efforts already made to promote the original date, saying, "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 released early, Pitchford shared the news of the new release date, expressing enthusiasm about the game's progress. "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, and both Gearbox and the Borderlands IP are owned by Take-Two, the same parent company as GTA developer Rockstar. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is a comprehensive understanding of the company's game portfolio and strategic planning to ensure each game has the best chance of success.

In a February interview with IGN, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's approach to release scheduling, aiming to prevent cannibalization of their titles. He emphasized a consumer-centric strategy, saying, "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 these discussions, there is ongoing speculation about potential delays for GTA 6, possibly shifting into early winter or the first quarter of 2026. When questioned about the confidence in meeting the fall 2025 deadline for GTA 6, Zelnick responded cautiously to IGN, "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."