April 2025 State of Play Highlights Borderlands 4 Gameplay

Here is the SEO-optimized and content-enhanced version of your article, formatted to align with your original structure while improving readability and search engine visibility:

The latest Borderlands 4 State of Play offered a detailed 20-minute gameplay deep dive, showcasing the game’s new features, mechanics, and characters. This update from PlayStation's April 2025 broadcast provided fans with an in-depth look at what to expect when the game launches later this year. Read on to discover all the key revelations and insights surrounding its release date change.

Borderlands 4 State of Play: New Details Revealed

A Closer Look at 20 Minutes of Gameplay Footage

The Borderlands 4 segment during the April 2025 State of Play was one of the most anticipated parts of the stream. It featured an exclusive 20-minute gameplay deep dive, giving players a comprehensive preview of the game's core elements and progression systems.

Among the highlights were two of the four playable Vault Hunters available at launch:

• Vex the Siren – A powerful character who harnesses supernatural phase energy to enhance her abilities and summon deadly minions.
• Rafa the Exo-Soldier – A former Tediore trooper equipped with an experimental exo-suit that allows for digistructed weapon deployment, offering versatile combat options.

Players will explore the brand-new planet Kairos, a dangerous world filled with warring factions, hazardous wildlife, and desperate citizens under the tyrannical rule of the Timekeeper. The mission is clear: spark a revolution by uniting factions and turning them against this oppressive force.

Returning favorites like Claptrap, Moxxi, and Zane also make appearances, providing support and comedic relief as players journey through Kairos.

Additionally, the gameplay showcased several exciting new features:

• Licensed Parts System: Customize weapons with modular behaviors and abilities.
• New Gear Slots: Enable deeper specialization and unique build creation.
• Digirunner Vehicle: Traverse the terrain faster with this new rideable vehicle.

These additions promise to elevate the looter-shooter experience that Borderlands fans have come to love.

Addressing the Launch Date Change

Prior to the State of Play, Gearbox Software announced a shift in Borderlands 4's release date—moving it up by two weeks. While some speculated that this decision was tied to external factors, particularly the potential release window of Grand Theft Auto 6, Gearbox denied such claims.

CEO Randy Pitchford took to X (formerly Twitter) during the April 30 broadcast to clarify the situation, stating that the early launch was entirely based on confidence in the game's current state and development progress. “Our decision is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date,” he emphasized.

This explanation came amid ongoing discussions following Take-Two Interactive’s earlier earnings call in November 2024, where CEO Strauss Zelnick noted plans to launch GTA 6 in Fall 2025. Given that both Rockstar Games and Gearbox are subsidiaries of Take-Two, some fans theorized a scheduling conflict could have influenced the move.

However, Zelnick assured investors and fans alike that major releases would not be stacked unnecessarily. "I think it’s safe to say that we wouldn’t, and no one would, stack up huge releases unnecessarily," he remarked.

Regardless of the speculation, fans can now look forward to playing Borderlands 4 even sooner than expected.

Borderlands 4 Release Date and Platforms

Borderlands 4 is officially scheduled to launch on September 12, 2025, across the following platforms:

• PlayStation 5
• Xbox Series X|S
• Nintendo Switch 2
• PC

Stay tuned for more updates as the release date approaches. For the latest news and coverage on Borderlands 4, keep checking back here.