"Rockstar is controlled by no one, including their publisher": Ex-Blizzard boss says Borderlands 4 "doesn't matter" in response to fans trying to narrow the GTA 6 release window down

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Who would dare to tell the makers of Red Dead Redemption and Bully what to do?

A screenshot of protagonist Lucia from GTA 6
(Image credit: Rockstar)

People have been speculating about when Grand Theft Auto 6 will arrive this year, and Borderlands 4's September launch date has led some to believe we've narrowed the window down, as it likely won't clash with another game from the same publisher. Mike Ybarra, ex-Blizzard president, says this doesn't matter.

It's been reported that publishers are waiting for Rockstar to announce when GTA 6 will launch before committing to their own games' release dates. This is because no one wants to compete with it. We only have so much money, we can't buy every game. If GTA 6 really is $100, people might not be able to buy another game for a while. So, that's the worry everyone else has, but Rockstar likely isn't phased by other games.

"GTA 6 is the king," Ybarra tweets. "They don't care who announces what. Everyone will move their release out of the way whenever they announce the ship date for GTA 6. It is really the only game that has the power to do this today."

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One commenter replies that "it’s advantageous for the publisher of both Borderlands 4 and GTA to space it out," Ybarra's response is definitive. "Borderlands 4 doesn't matter. Rockstar is controlled by no one, including their publisher."

Take-Two publishes both GTA and Borderlands, so it wouldn't make any sense for the company to have two of its big games competing for attention in the same month, or even the same quarter, really.

But, as Ybarra says, Rockstar is controlled by no one. GTA Online is an absolute money printing machine, so I wouldn't be surprised if it could do whatever it wanted without consequence.

All this is to say, don't take news of Borderland 4's launch date as a confirmation GTA 6 won't launch around the same time. We won't know when GTA 6 is coming until Rockstar tells us, and even then, it could change its mind if it decides the game needs more time in the oven, or if it wants to bring the release forward.

While we wait, check out our ranking of the best GTA games you can play right now.

Issy van der Velde
Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.