Borderlands 4 State of Play live coverage – all the news as it happens
Expect to see everything from new missions to new and returning characters during "20 minutes of developer-guided gameplay"
Surprise! We're getting a special Borderlands 4 State of Play to tease what's coming to the new loot 'em up when it launches on its new release date.
Revealed a wee bit earlier than it should, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to reveal that release plans are changing. While that typically means a delay these days, that wasn't the case here – Borderlands 4 is now releasing on September 12. Considering that the original release date was September 23, that's 11 days earlier than originally anticipated.
So why the new release plans? Pitchford says that "everything's going kinda the best-case scenario," and that "the game is awesome, the team is cooking." What that doesn't mean – according to Pitchford, anyway – is that Borderlands 4 is getting out the way of GTA 6.
Regardless, it sounds like we're about to get our best look at the game yet, thanks to a special Borderlands 4 State of Play. Speaking in a new PlayStation Blog, creative director Graeme Timmins says "Strap in with me and Anthony Nicholson, Senior Project Producer, for over 20 minutes of developer-guided gameplay, including missions, killer weapons, exciting Action Skills, new and returning characters, and more."
The Borderlands 4 stream is still many hours away, so it's a tad early to strap in, but you can absolutely stick around with us as we cover everything we know about the game so far up until the stream itself, at which point we will cover all the nitty-gritty details worth sharing.
Borderlands 4 State of Play stream
Borderlands 4 State of Play time
The special Borderlands 4-focused State of Play starts at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 10pm BST / 11pm CEST later today (April 30). You'll be able to watch it on the stream linked above, and you can expect the whole thing to last 20 minutes.
As per usual, a countdown will likely kick off when the time comes, so don't worry if you're a bit late. Also, we're summing everything up right here, so you won't miss a beat.
With several more hours to go before the proper Borderlands 4 State of Play kicks off, it's worth revisiting the Borderlands 4 launch date trailer from a couple of months back. The date is wrong, now that's it's moved up, but it's unlikely that the game will look significantly different during today's reveals and the aforementioned trailer offers maybe the best look yet at what to expect.
You don't need to take my word for it, however! See for yourself:
If you'd like to hear more from Nicholson on Borderlands 4, you can read our Big in 2025 feature right here.
Not as much related to gameplay, but we may also get a glimpse of the game's tone. Nicholson also told us earlier this year that Borderlands 4's humor sits somewhere between the first two games, which can only mean less Skibidi Toilet and more Handsome Jack-style antics. One can hope.
What's caught my eye for later is the promise of seeing what the gameplay will bring. Earlier this year, we spoke to senior project producer Anthony Nicholson, who told us that Borderlands 4 has "the deepest and most diverse skill trees" of any game in the series, in addition to "billions" of weapons.
We can only hope Pitchford didn't see fan reaction to the discovery you can finally swim in B4.
However you're feeling about Borderlands 4 before the big stream, Pitchford wants you to "root for us and cheer us on."
Earlier this year, one fan questioned why Pitchford muted a fan for expressing "mild takes" about the upcoming loot 'em up. For Pitchford, he "didn’t see any critique" in the fan's original message, just "shitty negativity that was demotivating."
"If you take [a] developer’s passion for granted, we’ll all pay the price," he says. "I love criticism and, thankfully, I have never been in short supply. Don’t gaslight me on his post. It wasn’t criticism. It was pessimism. It’s toxic for people killing themselves for your entertainment, so fuck that noise."
On that note, who is looking forward to the stream later, eh?
If you're wondering if the new release date has anything to do with GTA 6, then Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is here to insist it's "100% the result of confidence" rather than anything else.
Rockstar and Gearbox owner Take-Two had previously said it wouldn't be stacking big releases on top of each other, so there might be something to it. If Pitchford is to be believed, though, such things would be a mere coincidence.
That does mean you've got a few minutes to wait, though the big news is arguably already out there. As we reported just the other day, Borderlands 4 is releasing over a week earlier than expected because "the game is awesome, the team is cooking." If you've booked time off, that means you'll need to ask your boss kindly to give you September 12 off.
First things first. The special Borderlands 4 State of Play broadcast time is 2pm PT, or 5pm ET / 10pm BST / 11pm CEST, depending on where you're at in the world. When the time comes, you can expect 20 minutes of "missions, killer weapons, exciting Action Skills, new and returning characters, and more," as revealed in a recent blog.
And away we go! More Borderlands 4 isn't what I came into this week expecting, but who could say no?
