Randy Pitchford: Borderlands 4 Release Date Not Influenced by Other Products

Gearbox's Randy Pitchford has firmly stated that the decision to release Borderlands 4 earlier than planned was not influenced by the release dates of other games, such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6. Originally set for a September 23 launch, Borderlands 4 will now hit the shelves on September 12 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

This unexpected 11-day shift led to speculation that the move was strategically made to avoid clashing with the anticipated release of GTA 6 in the fall of 2025. Both games are under the umbrella of Take-Two, which also owns GTA developer Rockstar. Additionally, there was speculation about a potential conflict with Bungie’s Marathon, another co-op focused shooter set to launch on the same original date, September 23, 2025. Borderlands 4 is set to have its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

Pitchford, however, took to social media to dispel these rumors. He emphasized that the early release of Borderlands 4 was purely due to "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 tweeted. "Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date."

The move to bring a game's release date forward is unusual in the gaming industry, where delays are more common. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, found the decision surprising. "They’ve gone out with a date," he 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 his excitement 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, a subsidiary of Take-Two, which also owns Gearbox and the Borderlands IP. Take-Two is also the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar, and at the executive level, there is a comprehensive oversight of all its games to ensure each has the best chance of success.

In a February interview with IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick discussed the company's strategy for game releases, aiming to avoid cannibalization. "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," Zelnick 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, there's also talk about the potential delay of GTA 6 into early winter or even the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in hitting the fall 2025 release date 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."