Borderlands 4 is one of the best-looking upcoming space games of 2025. It might even make us forget how godawful the Borderlands movie was. Maybe. With a release date locked in and plenty of details floating in orbit, here's the scoop on Borderlands 4 so far.
Leaving Pandora behind, the fourth mainline Borderlands game is moving the action to the all-new planet of Kairos. After Borderlands 3 and the spinoff New Tales from the Borderlands left fans underwhelmed, this is the big shake-up that the long-running RPG series needed.
Developer Gearbox is keeping most story details hidden away in a vault, but chances are we'll be learning more about the game's main baddie and the many dangers that await the 'vault hunters' sooner rather than later. On the gameplay front, we know that things are staying mostly familiar, although both combat and movement appear to have been leveled up. Overall, Borderlands 4 is looking fiercer and more relentless than anything we've experienced before in the gun-and-loot series and we are here for it.
The new Borderlands game is not the only major sci-fi title releasing this year: Metroid Prime 4 should be one of Nintendo's hottest 2025 launches, Directive 8020 seems perfect for the Halloween season, and RPG lovers can get excited for Exodus and The Outer Worlds 2.
What is the Borderlands 4 release date?
After much speculation, publisher 2K and developer Gearbox confirmed earlier this year that Borderlands 4 is set to release on September 23, 2025.
That doesn't leave newcomers with an interest in the series' history and universe with a lot of time to burn through all the Borderlands games, but veterans will celebrate that the wait is almost over.
What platforms will Borderlands 4 be available on?
Borderlands 4 will launch on Xbox Series X/S, PC (Epic & Steam), and PS5.
To the surprise of no one, last-gen consoles were left behind, allowing the developers of Borderlands 4 to work on and apply bigger innovations beyond graphical fidelity. We haven't seen how the world of Kairos comes together in uncut gameplay, but we expect that the switch to beefier base hardware will affect the complexity of the level design and the navigation possibilities (as well as the potential carnage), among other things.
Borderlands 4 Trailers
Surprisingly, barely anything leaked before Gearbox and 2K were ready to reveal that Borderlands 4 was coming and the official teaser trailer didn't appear until August 20, 2024. It was a very cinematic and intriguing first look that made us question for a hot second if the series' signature cel-shaded aesthetic was being dropped (thankfully, it wasn't). You can watch it below:
Only a few months later, on December 13, 2024, we were introduced to the four new vault hunters as well as plenty of menacing enemies. It also gave us our first look at many of the locales we're going to be visiting come September. Meet them here:
On February 12, 2025, a short but explosive gameplay trailer dropped. This put the focus back on the moment-to-moment gameplay with guns, abilities, and sick moves that highlight how fast and furious Borderlands 4 is compared to previous entries. Watch it here:
What is the plot of Borderlands 4?
Spoilers for Borderlands 3 ahead.
Borderlands 3, as uneven as its writing was, ended on a high note and left a couple of good cliffhangers waiting to be picked up by the fourquel: Lilith sacrificed herself in order to save Pandora from being destroyed by its moon, Elpis, after the villains Tyreen and Troy Calypso learned the celestial body was the literal key to opening the Great Vault that is Pandora itself. We'll spare you the details, but it's unclear whether Lilith survived or not. What we know for sure is that she teleported Elpis away from Pandora and to an entirely different system.
The teaser trailer revealed where Pandora's moon ended up: right next to Kairos, which 2K and Gearbox describe as "the most dangerous planet" in the Borderlands universe (of course). This is bad news for Kairos' inhabitants, but it seems they already had problems on their hands with The Timekeeper, "a ruthless dictator" who runs the planet with an iron fist. Enter the new team of vault hunters. Does Kairos even have a vault of its own? We can't wait to find out.
As Gearbox prepares for the game's launch in September 2025, there's a good chance much of the plot and the protagonists will be revealed gradually. Borderlands games typically aren't shy nor secretive during their marketing campaigns, so we're expecting almost all the cards to be laid out on the table well ahead of the release.
What type of game is Borderlands 4?
Borderlands 4 is sticking to the signature first-person action-RPG nature of the previous installments and will be burying us in colorful loot once again. The main difference when compared to other famous action-RPG series is that Borderlands games put never-ending, brutal shootouts front and center. Level up, grab better weapons, fight bigger enemies. Rinse and repeat. You know the drill.
There's a fun narrative and solid world-building holding it all together, but it's ultimately all about the immediate fun factor with imaginative guns, fantasy-like abilities, and class-based progression reminiscent of games like Diablo. Press releases have been hyping up Borderlands 4's all-new build possibilities and expanded 'loot chase', so it appears the creatives doubled down on the series' strengths and are spicing things up. Environments and traversal are also evolving, seemingly encouraging exploration in a bigger way than ever before.
At the time of writing, the store pages for the game have also confirmed that local split-screen play for two players is back alongside four-player online co-op. In this age of local co-op being left behind, it's great to hear Borderlands 4 will be retaining this staple. It also looks as if an MMO structure like Destiny or Warframe's isn't on the cards for Borderlands anytime soon.
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