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

Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to release Borderlands 4 earlier than initially planned was not influenced by the release dates of other games, such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6. This clarification comes amid speculation that the move might have been a strategic adjustment to avoid competition.

Originally scheduled 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. The 11-day shift led to rumors that Take-Two, the parent company of both Gearbox and GTA developer Rockstar, might have rescheduled to give Borderlands 4 a better chance at the market, especially with GTA 6 slated for a fall 2025 release.

There was also speculation that Borderlands 4's release date shift could be related to avoiding a clash with Bungie's Marathon, another co-op focused shooter set to release on the same day, September 23, 2025. Marathon is a significant title for Bungie, which is owned by Sony. Borderlands 4 is set to have 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 move the release date forward was purely based on "confidence" and the game's "development trajectory." 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 it's not uncommon for game release dates to be adjusted, moving a release date forward is less typical than delays. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed his skepticism about the move, tweeting, "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 about the new release date for Borderlands 4, saying, "Everything is going great, actually. 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, which, along with Gearbox and the Borderlands IP, is owned by Take-Two. This same company is the parent of Rockstar, the developer behind GTA. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is a comprehensive oversight of all games under the Take-Two umbrella, with a focus on ensuring each title has the best chance of success.

In an interview with IGN in February, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's strategy for game releases, emphasizing a plan to avoid cannibalization of their own titles. He stated, "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 all this speculation, there's also talk about potential delays for GTA 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 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."