Borderlands 4 Boss Reveals Why They Changed the Release Date

CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, has revealed why Borderlands 4 moved its release date, and the reason may surprise you. Releasing a video game is arguably just as hard as making the dang thing. It’s all about timing and marketing. If you release a game right on top of Call of Duty or some other major release that is guaranteed to succeed, it will likely spell bad news for your title. It also has to be marketed efficiently so players know when to get it. While diehard fans are likely going to keep up with that kind of news no matter what, it is also important to reach those who are more casually interested as well.

It’s an incredibly delicate matter and it’s not just about picking a random date on the calendar. There’s a lot of strategy around it. This has been a hot topic when it comes to the release of GTA 6, a game that is currently slated to drop this fall. Rockstar Games hasn’t said a word about the game since December 2023 and hasn’t even put a firm date on it, which has caused many to fear a delay for the game. Similarly, a lot of video game companies are scared to claim a spot on the calendar because they don’t want the misfortune of releasing close to GTA 6 and either getting pulverized or having to delay their game entirely.

Borderlands 4 Release Date Wasn’t Changed Because of GTA 6

As a result, when Gearbox announced it was moving the release date of Borderlands 4 two weeks early, people raised an eyebrow. Gearbox and Rockstar Games are under the same parent company, so some felt this was an indicator that Take-Two told Gearbox to get out of the way. However, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford denied on Twitter that there’s any sort of grand conspiracy here. He noted that he doesn’t have any insider information that would impact Borderlands 4 and the decision was made because they have the utmost confidence in the game.

“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,” said Pitchford. “Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date. […] We’re super confident in the game and we are ready to launch early, so there was no sense in holding out. The sooner we launch, the sooner we’ll also get feedback. We listen and learn and are excited to get a bite at that apple as we are working on exciting post-launch efforts.”

Pitchford’s comments were backed by Borderlands 4 writer Sam Winkler, who made a joke about Bungie’s Marathon. Borderlands 4 and Marathon were previously expected to launch on the same day and some speculated that Gearbox was moving away from Bungie as well. However, Winkler stated that they were considering moving Borderlands 4‘s date before Marathon announced its release date. So, that seems to nip everything in the bud. While it’s still entirely possible GTA 6 will launch in the fall, it seems like Gearbox is trying to indicate that fans should not look at what other games for any kind of clues.

In somewhat related news, Borderlands 4 also got a brand new gameplay trailer the other day. It highlights major changes to the gameplay for the looter shooter and it looks a lot better than some of the past games. Whether or not fans respond to it glowingly remains to be seen, but Gearbox plans to let fans get hands-on before launch at in-person events.