I'm not even a Borderlands guy and I have to admit this latest looks fun. Randy and Randy (that's Varnell and Pitchford, respectively) appeared at Sony's State of Play stream to show off more of Borderlands 4's acrobatic gun antics.
But the biggest news is a release date: Borderlands 4 is out September 23, 2025. That's a Tuesday, if you're curious. Multiple failed attempts to get into Borderlands 3 and that strange Tiny Tina game have shooed me away from the series, but I'm seeing lots to like in the sliding, double jump, and grapple hook—is Borderlands a movement shooter now? Ok, I'm leaning in.
This is our best look at Borderlands 4 gameplay yet. Gearbox also had a trailer during The Game Awards in December, but that one was more focused on characters and humor, aspects of Borderlands I can't say I've ever thought highly of. Maybe Borderlands 4 will [[link]] be a turning point. Back in September, narrative director Sam Winkler said:
"We want to make sure the player and the vault hunters are the central characters of our story. We want to make sure [[link]] the world is reactive, that the world is grounded. That while we keep our humor that brings a lot of people coming back to our franchise, we want to make sure that it's situational, that [[link]] it emerges naturally."
Hopefully Borderlands 4's humor emerges more naturally than in the Borderlands film, a that did not turn out to be the big cross-media "moment" for Borderlands Gearbox was hoping for.