Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to advance the release date of the cooperative-focused first-person shooter, *Borderlands 4*, was not influenced by the release schedules of other games. Originally slated for September 23, *Borderlands 4* will now launch on September 12 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2. This shift has sparked discussions and theories that the move might be a strategic response to avoid competition with high-profile titles such as *Marathon* by Bungie or *Grand Theft Auto 6* (GTA 6), which is set to release in the fall of 2025.
Speculation intensified due to *Borderlands 4* sharing its initial release date with *Marathon*, an important co-op focused extraction shooter from Bungie, now owned by Sony. Additionally, there was talk about potential adjustments to avoid clashing with GTA 6, especially given that both *Borderlands 4* and GTA 6 are under the same parent company, Take-Two. However, Pitchford refuted these theories via a tweet, emphasizing that the decision was purely based on "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," Pitchford stated. "Our decision is literally 0% about any other product's actual or theoretical launch date."
While moving up a release date is uncommon in the gaming industry, where delays are more frequent, the decision to do so has raised eyebrows. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about the move, suggesting that there must be a significant commercial rationale behind shifting a well-publicized release date.
"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, Pitchford shared the surprising news about the new release date, highlighting the positive development trajectory of *Borderlands 4*. "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 Rockstar, the developer of GTA 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is likely a strategic oversight of all game releases to maximize their success and avoid cannibalization.
In an interview with IGN, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's approach to game releases, aiming to respect consumers' time and interest in playing multiple hit games. "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 the speculation about *Borderlands 4*'s release date shift, there's also talk about potential delays for GTA 6, which might be pushed into early winter or the first quarter of 2026. Zelnick, while optimistic about GTA 6's current fall 2025 target, acknowledged the inherent risks of delays in game development. "Look, there's always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things," he told IGN. "So we feel really good about it."
