Gearbox's much-anticipated first-person shooter, Borderlands 4, is set to hit the shelves 11 days earlier than originally planned. This exciting news was shared by the game's development chief, Randy Pitchford, in a video that was accidentally released early. Initially scheduled for release on September 23, Borderlands 4 will now launch on September 12, available across 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 further exclaimed, "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 the eagerly awaited PlayStation State of Play, focusing on Borderlands 4, is expected to be released soon.

The decision to advance the release date of Borderlands 4 has sparked curiosity about its potential connection to the looming release of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6). Currently slated for a fall 2025 release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, GTA 6's broad release window could overshadow other games, including Borderlands 4. It's worth considering whether moving Borderlands 4's release date is a strategic move to provide the game with more market space.

It's important to note that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two, which also owns Rockstar, the developer of GTA 6. At the executive level, including CEO Strauss Zelnick, there is likely a comprehensive understanding of all the company's games and their development stages. The decision to shift Borderlands 4's release could be influenced by recent clarity on GTA 6's release date, aiming to optimize the success of both titles.

With Borderlands 4 now set for September 12, it seems unlikely that GTA 6 will launch in the same month or in August. This leaves October, November, or December 2025 as potential release windows for GTA 6. However, releasing Take-Two's major games too closely together could risk cannibalizing their sales. This concern is also relevant for another 2K title, Mafia: The Old Country, which is scheduled for a summer 2025 release.

In an interview conducted in February, IGN posed the question to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick about the potential harm of releasing their big games too close to each other. Zelnick responded by emphasizing that Take-Two plans its releases to mitigate such risks, driven by a desire to "respect the consumer's need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next." He added, "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 all this speculation, there remains the possibility that GTA 6 could be delayed into early winter or even into the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in hitting the fall 2025 release for GTA 6, Zelnick cautiously remarked, "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."