Randy Pitchford: Borderlands 4 Release Date Decision Independent of Other Products

Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the early release of *Borderlands 4* was not influenced by the launch dates of other games, such as *Marathon* or *Grand Theft Auto 6*. 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.

The decision to move the release date up by 11 days led to speculation that it might be strategically positioned to avoid clashing with *GTA 6*, which is set for a fall 2025 launch. Both games are under the Take-Two umbrella, the parent company of *GTA* developer Rockstar and *Borderlands 4* publisher 2K Games, as well as Gearbox and the *Borderlands* IP itself. There were also rumors that *Borderlands 4* was shifted to avoid a direct competition with Bungie's *Marathon*, another co-op focused extraction shooter, planned for the same original release date of September 23, 2025.

However, Pitchford took to Twitter to dismiss these speculations, emphasizing that the early release of *Borderlands 4* was solely 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."

While it's uncommon for games to move their release dates forward (delays are more typical), Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about Pitchford's reasoning. Dring noted that if the shift wasn't influenced by other games' release dates, it seemed "a bit odd," especially given the marketing materials and public expectations already set for the original date.

In a video message released early, Pitchford shared the news of the new release date, highlighting the team's progress and the game's quality. "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!”

Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has previously discussed the company's strategy to space out its game releases to avoid cannibalization and respect the time consumers need to enjoy each game. In an interview with IGN, Zelnick explained, "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 the speculation, there's also talk about potential delays for *GTA 6*, possibly shifting into early winter or the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in hitting 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."