Gearbox's highly anticipated first-person shooter, *Borderlands 4*, is set to launch earlier than expected. Development chief Randy Pitchford recently announced in a video that the game, originally scheduled for a September 23 release, will now hit the shelves on September 12. This exciting news applies to all platforms, including PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
In the video, Pitchford expressed his enthusiasm, 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." He added with excitement, "What?! This never happens you guys! This never happens! We're moving the launch date forward! You're gonna get Borderlands 4 earlier!" Pitchford also mentioned that a PlayStation State of Play focused on *Borderlands 4* is forthcoming.
The decision to advance the release date has sparked speculation about its potential connection to the looming release of *Grand Theft Auto 6* (GTA 6), set for fall 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. Given that both *Borderlands 4* and GTA 6 are published by 2K Games and Rockstar, respectively, under the Take-Two umbrella, it's plausible that strategic planning at the executive level might have influenced this move to provide *Borderlands 4* with a better chance to shine before GTA 6 hits the market.
With *Borderlands 4* now slated for September 12, it seems unlikely that GTA 6 will launch in the same month or August. This opens up October, November, or December 2025 as potential release windows for GTA 6. However, there's a risk of *Take-Two* cannibalizing its major 2025 titles if they are released too close to each other, especially considering another 2K game, *Mafia: The Old Country*, is set to launch in summer 2025.
In a February interview, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed concerns about potential market cannibalization, emphasizing that the company plans its releases to avoid such issues. Zelnick stated, "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 this strategic maneuvering, there remains the possibility that GTA 6 could be delayed into early winter or even the first quarter of 2026. Zelnick acknowledged this risk, saying, "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."
