Looks like GTA 6 did not influence Borderlands 4's early release, Gearbox head confirms

Borderlands fans got some good news recently when it was confirmed that Borderlands 4 will be releasing earlier than scheduled. This news also brought some speculation about the possible announcement of GTA 6, but it looks like the two were completely unrelated. The head of Gearbox Studios has now confirmed that no other project had anything to do with the change in release date for Borderlands 4. 

Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox first announced on X that the upcoming Borderlands instalment was preponed to September 12. The reason for this was the better than anticipated development of the game and everything going great. While that video was deleted shortly after, the news was confirmed in a State of Play announcement on the PlayStation Blog. At the time, it was suspected that this could have something to do with the fall release of GTA 6 and how Take-Two Interactive did not want the two IPs to clash.

However, Pitchford has now clarified that the early release for Borderlands 4 is “100% the result of confidence in the game and development trajectory backed by actual tasks and bug find/fix rates.” The post goes on to state that this decision is “literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date.”

While he does not specifically mention GTA 6, it is more than likely that’s what he is referring to. Looks like those riding the GTA 6 hype train will just have to hang on a bit longer and wait for an official announcement from Rockstar. The game is expected to be released in the fall which means September to November, but not early September as that’s when Borderlands 4 is releasing.