Randy Pitchford: Borderlands 4's Early Release Not Tied to Other Game Launches

Randy Pitchford, the development chief 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. Despite speculation that the move might have been prompted by GTA 6's anticipated release window or a direct competition with Bungie's Marathon, Pitchford emphasized that the change was driven by confidence in the game's development and progress.

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. This adjustment sparked rumors that Take-Two, the parent company of both Gearbox and GTA developer Rockstar, might have shifted the date to avoid clashing with GTA 6, which is still set to launch in the fall of 2025.

Pitchford took to social media to clarify the situation, stating, "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." This statement aims to quash any speculation linking the date change to competitive scheduling.

Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about the move, noting that shifting a release date after it's been widely publicized is unusual and typically requires a strong commercial justification. "They’ve gone out with a date," Dring remarked. "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 with enthusiasm, emphasizing 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, a subsidiary of Take-Two, which also owns Gearbox and the Borderlands IP. Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has previously discussed the company's strategy to avoid release date conflicts that could lead to cannibalization of sales. In an interview with IGN, Zelnick 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 this, there's ongoing speculation about potential delays for GTA 6, which could shift to early winter or even into the first quarter of 2026. Zelnick responded cautiously to questions about GTA 6's release, saying, "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 significance in the upcoming lineup of releases.