Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to advance the release of *Borderlands 4* to September 12 from September 23 was not influenced by the release dates of other games, such as *Marathon* or *Grand Theft Auto 6*. The move sparked speculation that it might have been strategically timed to avoid competition with these titles, particularly as *GTA 6* is slated for a fall 2025 release, and *Marathon*, a crucial game for Bungie, was set to launch on the same day as the original *Borderlands 4* release date.
In a tweet, Pitchford emphasized that the decision to move up *Borderlands 4*'s release was purely driven by the team's 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."
Despite the rarity of games moving their release dates forward (delays being more common), Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed skepticism about the move, tweeting, "They’ve gone out with a date... 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 excitement about the early release, 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, the Borderlands IP, and Rockstar, the developer behind *GTA 6*. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there's a comprehensive understanding of all the company's games and their development stages, with a strategic aim to optimize each game's market success.
In an interview with IGN, Zelnick discussed Take-Two's approach to release scheduling, aiming to avoid cannibalization and respect consumer engagement with hit titles. "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," Zelnick said. "And what we found is when you're giving consumers hits, they tend to be interested in pursuing other hits... 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 speculation, there's also the possibility that *GTA 6* might face delays, potentially shifting to early winter or the first quarter of 2026. When questioned 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."
