Borderlands 4’s release date has us nervous for a possible GTA 6 delay

Borderlands 4 finally has an official release date set for later this year. But that release date runs far closer to the end of the year than previously estimated—and I’d be lying if it didn’t make me nervous about a Grand Theft Auto 6 delay.

Revealed at today’s PlayStation State of Play, Borderlands 4 showed off a bit more gameplay and teased a new Borderlands-specific State of Play for this spring to show off the full suite of new vault hunters, their action skills, and more. And while the teaser was a short one, there was also a golden key of information for those dying to get into another vault—Borderlands 4 is releasing on Sept. 23.

An official release date is great, and I can’t wait to jump into a new Borderlands game. But if I’m being honest, I was expecting the game to come out a little bit earlier in the summer, leaving plenty of space for Take-Two publishing sibling GTA 6 to take over the gaming world in the fall.

For the last several months, many people have been under the impression that many developers and publishers were playing coy with 2025 release dates because of the looming threat of GTA 6 just mopping up any audience a game might have. Borderlands, on the other hand, seemed to have an inside track on that conundrum. As both games are under Take-Two subsidiaries, I assumed Borderlands 4 would most likely steer clear of fall 2025 knowing that’s when Take-Two has maintained GTA 6 was coming out. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently reaffirmed this window, while admitting to IGN there was always a change of “slippage” when it comes to game releases.

That chance of slippage feels like a much more present threat to me if Borderlands 4 is releasing at the end of September rather than in July, August, or earlier. Is Take-Two really only going to give Borderlands a month or so before the GTA 6 hype takes over?

Or, is this a signal that GTA 6‘s release slips into December—or even later? The September release date for Borderlands just doesn’t seem like it leaves Take-Two, 2K, and Rockstar a lot of room for error when it comes to their releases and maximizing the earning potential for both games.

I’m not the one looking at Take-Two’s books, on the other hand. There’s probably plenty of reason for the publisher to believe there’s ample time for both games from September to November, and GTA 6 is such a big release that it’s almost impossible for it not to conflict with some other game that’s coming out at the same time.

Maybe I’ve been hurt too many times, or maybe the state of the gaming industry has left me cynical. But the Borderlands 4 release date has me suspicious at the very least.