Randy Pitchford, the development chief at Gearbox, has firmly stated that the decision to move up the release date of the co-op focused first-person shooter Borderlands 4 was not influenced by the release schedules of other games. Originally set to launch on September 23, Borderlands 4 will now hit the shelves on September 12, across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Speculation had been rife that the 11-day shift was a strategic move to avoid direct competition with high-profile titles such as Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) and Marathon. GTA 6, developed by Rockstar and owned by Take-Two, is slated for a fall 2025 release, while Marathon, a crucial title for Bungie (owned by Sony), was set to launch on the same day as Borderlands 4—September 23, 2025.

However, Pitchford took to social media to dispel these rumors, emphasizing that the decision to bring Borderlands 4 forward was purely based on 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 tweeted. "Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date."

The move to advance the release date is unusual in the gaming industry, where delays are far more common. Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, expressed his skepticism about the timing change, noting the logistical challenges and marketing efforts already in place for the original date. "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 his enthusiasm about the game's progress, 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!"

Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, which, along with Gearbox and the Borderlands IP, is owned by Take-Two. This same conglomerate also owns Rockstar, the developer behind GTA 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is a comprehensive overview of all Take-Two's projects, with a focus on optimizing their release schedules to maximize success.

In a February interview with IGN, Zelnick addressed the company's strategy for release timing, aiming to avoid cannibalization of sales and respect consumer engagement with hit games. "No, I think we will plan the releases so as not to have that be a problem," Zelnick explained. "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 around Borderlands 4's release date, there are also discussions about potential delays for GTA 6, which might push its release into early winter or even 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."

Borderlands 4 is set to have its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast on April 30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST, giving fans more insights into what to expect from the game.