Borderlands 4 Release Date Brought Forward, Sparking Speculation About GTA 6
In a surprise move, Gearbox’s upcoming first-person shooter Borderlands 4 will now release on September 12, 11 days earlier than initially planned. The new release date was confirmed by development chief Randy Pitchford in a video that appears to have gone live early. According to IGN, Pitchford expressed his excitement 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."
The decision to bring Borderlands 4 forward has sparked speculation about its potential impact on the release date of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6). As reported by IGN, GTA 6 is currently set for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S at some point in the fall of 2025. The early release of Borderlands 4 may be an attempt to give the game more breathing room and avoid clashing with GTA 6.
It is worth noting that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, which is owned by Take-Two, the same parent company of Rockstar, the developer of GTA 6. As IGN points out, this may indicate that the companies are trying to strategically plan their releases to avoid cannibalizing each other’s games.
In an interview with IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the issue, stating, "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." Zelnick emphasized that the company aims to "respect the consumer’s need to spend a lot of time playing these hit games before they go on to the next."
The early release of Borderlands 4 may also be an attempt to avoid clashing with other upcoming games, such as Bungie’s online co-op extraction shooter Marathon, which is currently set for release on September 23, 2025. As IGN notes, Borderlands 4 has its own PlayStation State of Play set for this week, which may indicate that the company is preparing for a major marketing push.
The prospect of GTA 6 being delayed either into early winter or the first quarter of 2026 has also been raised. When asked about the confidence in Rockstar’s ability to hit the fall 2025 release window, Zelnick responded, "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."
As reported by IGN, Wesley Yin-Poole, the UK News Editor for IGN, notes that the early release of Borderlands 4 has raised more questions about the potential impact on GTA 6. With the game’s release date now set for September 12, it remains to be seen how this will affect the gaming landscape in the fall of 2025.
Sources:
IGN – Borderlands 4 launch brought forward by 11 days – what could it mean for the GTA 6 release date?
