As planned, Gearbox Software revealed Borderlands 4 during the State of Play on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. The presentation lasted nearly 20 minutes and provided a detailed look at the next chapter in the series, retaining its core elements while introducing new aspects for the franchise. Saying goodbye to Pandora’s desert landscapes and loincloth-clad bandits, Gearbox sends its new crew of Vault Hunters to Kairos, a planet governed by a cybernetic tyrant known as the Time Keeper. This figure, whether still human or not, has implanted each citizen with a brain chip that compels them to relive the same day repeatedly. A blend of Orwellian themes with gun-toting action, this setup is disrupted by an unannounced cosmic event—a moon materializing—which fractures the temporal loop and unleashes chaos: dimensional portals, rifts, physical anomalies, and waves of increasingly bizarre enemies.
In this timed chaos, four Hunters embark on their journey, including two who have been previously introduced. Vex, a spectral Mermaid whose powers dynamically align with the element of the weapon she wields in real-time, is among them. She is accompanied by Trouble, her digital companion—a fractal demon that combines cuteness with lethal potential and an elegant mechanism. Joining Vex is Rafa, a Tediore Exosoldat capable of generating weapons through digital combinations, designed to flood the battlefield with holographic machine guns.
At first glance, the recipe remains familiar: loot, skill trees, co-op. However, behind the scenes, Borderlands 4 is undergoing significant changes. The interface is being redesigned, mobility has been enhanced with features such as double jump, dash, and grappling hook, and the world, now fully interconnected without cuts or loading times, offers seamless traversal. Regarding the arsenal, Gearbox is returning to the basics. Gone are the days of thousands of legendary items and soulless loot inflation. Each weapon will have character thanks to a new modular system where players can assemble components like barrels, grips, ammunition types, magazines, and even choose manufacturers to create their customized weapons. Three new manufacturers with distinct mechanical identities join the game: Daedalus (swarming ammunition), Order (synchronized shooting), and Disconnected (automatic reloading). This level of customization encourages deeper exploration, experimentation, and personalization of playstyles. The cooperative mode will be fully playable at launch, featuring active crossplay, dynamic matchmaking, and shared screen functionality. Importantly, each player will experience their own unique loot drops, progression paths, and damage calculations.
Borderlands 4 wouldn’t be Borderlands without its absurdly over-the-top bosses. The trailer concludes with the appearance of Cerberus, a cyberorganic colossus screaming mechanical horrors. It will be possible to replay it at will via Moxxi’s Big Encore, a new feature designed for targeted farming fans. Add to this an end-game component centered on time-travel dungeons, with random modifiers each attempt, and you get post-campaign content that promises sleepless nights in co-op.
Initially scheduled for September 23, Borderlands 4 will now release on September 12, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A version for the Nintendo Switch 2 is also in development, expected by the end of the year. This anticipation of the release date reflects Gearbox’s confidence in the quality and stability of their final product, not because it needs to make room for the release of GTA 6.
