Randy Pitchford Insists Borderlands 4’s Early Release Date Decision Was ‘Literally 0% About Any Other Product’s Actual or Theoretical Launch Date’

Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has insisted the decision to release Borderlands 4 earlier than planned had nothing to do with any other game’s release date, amid speculation the shooter might have moved due to games such as Marathon or Grand Theft Auto 6.

Co-op focused FPS Borderlands 4 was due out September 23, but will now release on September 12 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

This 11-day shift sparked speculation that GTA 6’s release date had come into focus and that parent company Take-Two, which also owns GTA developer Rockstar, had shuffled its pack in a bid to give Borderlands 4 more breathing room. GTA 6 is currently still down to launch in the fall of 2025.

There was also talk that Borderlands 4 might have moved due to a clash with Bungie’s Marathon, a co-op focused extraction shooter. Marathon is a crucial game for Bungie, which is owned by Sony, and was set to go up against Borderlands 4 by releasing on the same day, September 23, 2025. Borderlands 4 is getting its own PlayStation State of Play broadcast today, April 30, at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST.

But in a tweet, Pitchford denied any game’s release date influenced the decision to bring Borderlands 4 forward, insisting it had to do with “confidence” and “development trajectory.”

“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,” Pitchford said. “Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date.”

While many games have brought their release dates forward, it remains an unusual occurence (delays are more likely). Chris Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, said that if other games’ release dates really did have nothing to do with bringing Borderlands 4 forward, then the decision is “a bit odd.”

“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 apparently published early yesterday, Pitchford revealed the surprise Borderlands 4 release date news. “Everything is going great, actually,” he said. “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 worth noting that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, which is owned by Take-Two. Gearbox itself and the Borderlands IP are also owned by Take-Two. Meanwhile, Take-Two is the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar. At a high enough level, right up to CEO Strauss Zelnick, there will be a knowledge of all the company’s games, where they’re at in development, and a desire to give them all the best chance of success.

In an interview with IGN in February, Zelnick said Take-Two is planning its releases to avoid a risk of cannibalization, insisting launch timing is 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.”

“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. 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.”

Amid all this speculation is of course the prospect that GTA 6 will be delayed either into early winter, or at some point in the first quarter of 2026.

“Look, there’s always a risk of slippage and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things,” Zelnick responded when IGN asked how confident he was that Rockstar would hit fall 2025 for GTA 6. “So we feel really good about it.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.