Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has denied Borderlands 4’s rescheduled release date is influenced by other games, amid GTA 6 speculation.
On Tuesday, Gearbox announced it has shifted Borderlands 4’s release date forward by several weeks. This sparked speculation that it could have been influenced by Rockstar’s release plans for Grand Theft Auto 6, which is also owned by Take-Two.
“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,”Pitchford wrote on X.
“Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date.”
Previously, Take-Two has indicated that it will not release GTA and Borderlands near each other.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is officially due to release this Fall, and although it still does not have a confirmed release date, parent company Take-Two recently claimed GTA6’s release date is on track.
Market analysts are expecting GTA6 to be the biggest entertainment release of 2025, and , according to a recent report from The Game Business, multiple major publishers are prepared to move their own releases in order to avoid it.
“Rockstar games always suck a lot of money and, more importantly, time out of the market,” reportedly said the boss of one of the world’s biggest game publishers. “We don’t want to be anywhere near that. We are working up multiple different plans for our titles.”
Another senior exec is said to have added: “Even without GTA. it’s immensely difficult to find free time for new games to shine. Time is the real scarcity for us, not money. It’s tough out there.”
