Gearbox Software has released a new trailer for its much-anticipated Borderlands 4, but that's not all. Borderlands 4 officially has a release date – Sept. 23, 2025.
The announcement came during Sony's Feb. 12 State of Play presentation and comes two months after Borderlands 4's reveal at The Game Awards 2024. Gearbox's founder Randy Pitchford and Chief Creative Officer Randy Varnell introduced the new Borderlands 4 trailer, which begins just before the 13-minute mark of the nearly 47-minute presentation.
The trailer features "gameplay and cinematics captured on PS5 and PC" that are "Adjusted for trailer use." The trailer is accompanied by the song "Like a Punk" by Joey Valence & Brae as a part of their 2024 album No Hands. While it's not a true gameplay trailer, and offers no details about the game's narrative, it does offer a good taste of how Borderlands 4 will look, feel, and sound.
The gameplay is continuing the trend of faster-paced combat and mobility, likely taking cues from modern Doom games. Varnell expanded on this in a PlayStation Blog post saying, "Move across the Borderlands like never before — double jumping, gliding, dodging, fixed-point grappling, and more — dealing death from every direction." The trailer also teases that Vault Hunters may finally be able to swim in Borderlands 4.
Move across the Borderlands like never before—double jumping, gliding, dodging, fixed-point grappling, and more—dealing death from every direction.
The trailer concludes with the Borderlands 4 tagline "Break Free," which further indicates Gearbox may be looking to break free from franchise conventional norms and deliver a fresh Borderlands experience with even more freedom. Pitchford and Varnell also announced that there will be a special State of Play focused entirely on Borderlands 4 detailing combat, Vault Hunters, Action Skills, and much more. The Borderlands 4 State of Play will arrive this Spring, but specific days and times were not indicated.
Borderlands 4 Comes at a Rough Patch In the Franchise
Borderlands Desperately Needs Borderlands 4 To Be a Winner
Gearbox is banking on Borderlands 4 to reignite the flame of the looter shooter series after a series of disappointing releases. Borderlands 3 was received well by critics, but Borderlands fans were underwhelmed by the game's story, writing, and villains that fell woefully short of Borderlands 2 and its engaging villain, Handsome Jack. Fans also felt that Borderlands 3 lacked the gameplay advancements to justify calling it a sequel.
New Tales from the Borderlands, the sequel to the Telltale Games hit point-and-click adventure game, also didn't fare well. New Tales from the Borderlands is set after Borderlands 3 and features a new set of characters, who fans struggled to get attached to compared to the original Tales from the Borderlands cast.
Meanwhile, the Borderlands live-action adaptation was released in 2024 and was critically panned by critics and fans alike. Borderlands was one of the biggest box office bombs of 2024 and is nominated for six Golden Raspberry awards including "Worst Picture" – potentially becoming the first video game adaptation to win the notorious award.
It hasn't all been bad for the Borderlands series as 2022's Tiny Tina's Wonderlands saw praise for its cast and writing, showing there's still some life for the over-the-top franchise. Whether or not that carries over into Borderlands 4 remains to be seen, but players won't have to wait much longer to find out.
Source: PlayStation
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82/100 Critics Rec: 87%
- Released
- September 12, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Gearbox Software
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Looter Shooter, Action, Adventure, RPG
