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

Randy Pitchford, the head of development at Gearbox, has firmly denied that the early release of *Borderlands 4* was influenced by the launch dates of other games, such as *Marathon* or *Grand Theft Auto 6*. Despite speculation that *Borderlands 4*'s release date shift was a strategic move to avoid competition, Pitchford emphasized that the decision was solely based on confidence in the game and its development progress.

Originally set for a September 23 release, *Borderlands 4* will now launch on September 12, 2025, across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The 11-day advancement sparked rumors that it might be a response to *GTA 6*'s upcoming release, which is still scheduled for the fall of 2025, and to avoid clashing with Bungie's *Marathon*, another co-op focused shooter set for the same original release date. *Borderlands 4* will also be highlighted in a PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

Addressing the speculation head-on, Pitchford took to social media to clarify: "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."

Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about the move, noting that changing a release date after it's been widely publicized is unusual and typically driven by commercial considerations. "They’ve gone out with a date," Dring tweeted. "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 news with evident excitement, stating, "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, which also owns Gearbox and the *Borderlands* IP, as well as *GTA* developer Rockstar. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is a comprehensive understanding of all the company's games and their development stages. Zelnick has previously stated that Take-Two aims to schedule releases to avoid cannibalization, respecting consumers' need to spend ample time with each game.

In a February interview with IGN, Zelnick elaborated on this strategy: "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 surrounding *Borderlands 4*'s release date, there are also concerns about potential delays for *GTA 6*. 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."