Borderlands 4 Release Accelerated: Impact on GTA 6 Launch?

Gearbox's eagerly anticipated first-person shooter, Borderlands 4, is set to launch 11 days ahead of schedule. This exciting news was shared by development chief Randy Pitchford in a video that inadvertently went live earlier than planned. Originally slated for a September 23 release, Borderlands 4 will now hit the shelves on September 12, available on 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 a touch of 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 fans can look forward to a PlayStation State of Play event focused on Borderlands 4, which is set to be released soon.

The decision to advance the release date has sparked speculation about its potential relation to the looming release of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), scheduled for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S sometime in the fall of 2025. Given the vague release window for GTA 6, it could overshadow other titles like Borderlands 4. It's interesting to note that Borderlands 4 is published by 2K Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two, which is also the parent company of Rockstar, the developer behind GTA 6. At the executive level, decisions could be influenced by the overarching strategy to ensure each game's success. Perhaps recent insights into GTA 6's release timeline prompted the move to give Borderlands 4 more space to shine.

With Borderlands 4's new release date of September 12, it seems unlikely that GTA 6 will launch in the same month or August. Possible release months for GTA 6 now include October, November, or December 2025. However, there's a risk that Take-Two might inadvertently cause its major 2025 releases to compete against each other. Another title to consider is Mafia: The Old Country, another 2K game set to launch in the summer of 2025.

The potential for Take-Two's major titles, particularly GTA 6, to negatively impact each other due to close release dates was a topic of discussion with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in an interview conducted in February. Zelnick reassured that the company plans its releases strategically to avoid cannibalization, emphasizing that the timing respects consumers' need to fully engage with each game before moving on to the next. He 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 speculation, there's also the possibility that GTA 6 could face delays, potentially shifting its release into early winter or even into the first quarter of 2026. When asked about the confidence in meeting the fall 2025 deadline 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."