Cliff Notes – Borderlands 4’s reverse delay is a blatant clue about GTA 6 release date
- Gearbox has advanced the release date of Borderlands 4 from September 23 to September 12, citing smoother-than-expected development as the reason for the change.
- The timing of this adjustment appears strategic, likely aimed at avoiding competition with the anticipated release of GTA 6, which is expected in late September or early October.
Borderlands 4’s reverse delay is a blatant clue about GTA 6 release date
Gearbox has shared new dates for Borderlands 4’s launch and its own State of Play presentation, in a mighty suspicious calendar change.
Too often do video games get delayed that it’s always a surprise when the opposite happens. In this instance, it’s Borderlands 4.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford broke the news early by accident, in a video on X (which he subsequently deleted but has since reuploaded), but it wasn’t long until a more official confirmation was made on social media.
In addition, a date for a new State of Play showcase focused only on Borderlands 4 (which was teased during the February presentation) has been revealed, although new gameplay footage will be unveiled as early as this week.
What is the Borderlands 4 release date?
Originally, Borderlands 4 was scheduled for September 23, but now it’ll release a whole 11 days earlier on September 12, for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
The reason for this, according to Pitchford, is because development has been progressing smoother than expected: ‘Everything’s going kinda 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.’
You don’t need us to tell you that never usually happens and there’s no sensible reason why they’d suddenly change the release date, and all the existing plans for the game’s launch, for the sake of 11 days.
As for the State of Play, that will air on Wednesday, April 30 at 10pm BST, via the official PlayStation Twitch and YouTube channels.
It’ll only last for 20 minutes or so, but the PlayStation Blog promises a lot of new gameplay featuring ‘missions, killer weapons, exciting Action Skills, new and returning characters, and more.’
Not only does Gearbox’s reason for the release date change make little sense but there’s a much more convincing explanation, and that’s that they’re trying to get out of the way of GTA 6.
Since Rockstar Games owner Take-Two Interactive is publishing both titles, it no doubt wants a healthy distance between Borderlands 4 and GTA 6, which still only has a vague autumn release window.
There was a theory that GTA 6 would be out before Borderlands 4, but that’s looking even less likely now that the latter’s launching early. As a reminder, Mafia: The Old Country, another Take-Two game, is aiming for August 8 according to a leak.
What is the GTA 6 release date?
While other publishers are left to guess when GTA 6 will be out, Take-Two knows for a fact and the obvious assumption, resulting from Borderlands 4’s release date change, is that GTA 6 will be out either late September or early October.
That would put it in the same month as Sony’s Ghost Of Yōtei, which was recently given a launch date of October 2, and which many saw as a risk as soon as it was announced.
If there’s anyone else that knows GTA 6’s release date, outside of Take-Two, it’s probably Sony though, with rumours that they will help with the marketing of the game. There’s no evidence of that, but if it is true then Borderlands 4’s release change begins to make less sense.
Last year, former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij, who served as technical director on noughties era GTA games, admitted that the decision to delay 2008’s GTA 4 out of 2007 didn’t happen until four months before the original launch date.
As such, Vermeij expects any GTA 6 delay won’t be decided until May at the earliest, something he reiterated in a new X post about GTA 4’s 17th anniversary.
‘The original release date [for GTA 4] was October 16th, 2007, in time for Christmas,’ wrote Vermeij. ‘We made the decision to delay the game in July 2007. Only at that time did it become clear we were going to miss the deadline. I’m guessing decision-day for [GTA 6] will be similar.’
So while Borderlands 4’s release date change is highly suspicious it’s not quite the smoking gun it at first seems.