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

Randy Pitchford, the head of development at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to advance the release date of Borderlands 4 was not influenced by the launch schedules of other games, such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6. Originally set to launch on September 23, Borderlands 4 will now hit the shelves on September 12, available across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The decision to move the release date forward by 11 days triggered speculation that it might be a strategic move to avoid clashing with GTA 6, which is slated for a fall 2025 release. Since Borderlands 4 and GTA 6 are both under the umbrella of Take-Two Interactive, there was talk that the parent company might be adjusting release dates to prevent competition between its own titles. Additionally, there were concerns about a direct competition with Bungie's Marathon, another co-op focused shooter set to release on the same initial date of September 23, 2025.

However, Pitchford took to Twitter to dispel these rumors, emphasizing that the early release of Borderlands 4 was purely due to "confidence" in the game and its "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."

Despite Pitchford's clarification, the move to bring forward a game's release date is considered unusual in the industry, where delays are more common. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed his surprise at the decision, noting the significant marketing and promotional efforts already tied to the original date. He tweeted, "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, Pitchford shared his excitement about the game's progress, 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, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, which also owns Gearbox and the Borderlands IP, as well as Rockstar Games, the developer of GTA 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is a comprehensive understanding of all the company's projects and a strategic approach to their release schedules to maximize success.

In an interview with IGN in February, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's strategy to avoid cannibalization of its own titles, stating, "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 the speculation, there's also the possibility that GTA 6 might face delays, potentially shifting to early winter or the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in meeting 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."

Borderlands 4 is set to have its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST, further highlighting the game's upcoming release.