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 early release of *Borderlands 4* was not influenced by the release schedules of other games, such as *Marathon* or *Grand Theft Auto 6*. Despite speculation that the move was to avoid competition with these titles, *Borderlands 4* has shifted its launch from September 23 to September 12, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The 11-day advancement fueled rumors that *GTA 6*'s impending release in the fall of 2025 prompted Take-Two, the parent company of both Gearbox and *GTA* developer Rockstar, to adjust *Borderlands 4*'s date to provide it more market space. Additionally, there was talk of a potential clash with Bungie’s *Marathon*, another co-op focused shooter set for the same initial release date of September 23, 2025. *Borderlands 4* will have its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30, 2025, at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

However, Pitchford took to Twitter to dismiss these speculations, emphasizing that the decision to move up *Borderlands 4*'s release was purely due to 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," he stated. "Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date."

While moving a release date forward is less common than delays, Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, found the move surprising if it was not influenced by other games' release dates. "They’ve gone out with a date," Dring remarked on Twitter. "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 of the new release date with enthusiasm. "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, which, along with Gearbox and the *Borderlands* IP, is owned by Take-Two. Take-Two is also the parent company of *GTA* developer Rockstar. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is awareness of all the company’s games and their development status, with a strategic intent to optimize the release schedule for maximum success.

In a February interview with IGN, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's approach to game releases to avoid cannibalization. "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," he said. "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 is ongoing speculation about potential delays for *GTA 6* into early winter or the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in hitting the fall 2025 target 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."