Borderlands 4 skips Game Pass at launch — what that means for players

The next mainline Borderlands is locked in: Borderlands 4 launches September 12, 2025, and it won’t be on Xbox Game Pass on day one. If you want in at launch, you’re paying retail: $69.99 for the Standard Edition, $99.99 for the Deluxe, and $129.99 for the Super Deluxe. That’s the now-normal AAA pricing ladder, and it puts Gearbox and 2K squarely in the camp of publishers prioritizing full-price sales first.

There’s no official word on if or when the game might arrive on Game Pass. That silence matters. Borderlands 3 did eventually show up on subscription libraries, but well after its initial release window. If history is a guide, don’t expect a quick turnaround. Waiting months could turn into waiting years.

The rollout is staggered by platform in a way that favors PC for once. On Windows, the game goes live on both Steam and Epic Games Store at a single global time: 9 AM PT on September 11. Console players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S follow at their local midnight on September 12. A Nintendo Switch 2 version lands a bit later on October 3, 2025.

One unusual twist: the release actually moved up. The original target was September 23; now it’s arriving September 12 for most platforms. In a year packed with delays, pulling a launch forward is a flex. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has matched that confidence with bold talk about the game’s value, suggesting hardcore fans would have paid even more and that the experience is worth several times the sticker price. That’s salesmanship, sure, but it also telegraphs the studio’s belief that the game can stand on its own without a subscription boost.

On Xbox, there’s a practical wrinkle to budget for. Online multiplayer on that platform requires an active membership to Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate. If you mainly play co-op, factor that into your total cost of entry. Local play doesn’t require a membership, but Borderlands has always shined brightest with a squad online.

As for those higher-priced editions, publishers typically bundle early DLC, booster packs, cosmetics, or expansion passes to justify the markup. Gearbox hasn’t detailed everything publicly, but if you don’t care about cosmetics or future content, the Standard Edition is almost always the safest buy. If you know you’ll be there for every raid, every seasonal drop, and every story add-on, the Deluxe tiers may make sense—just be sure the included content aligns with how you actually play.

The bigger picture: why it’s skipping subscriptions, and how to plan your purchase

Why hold back a tentpole release from a subscription everyone buzzes about? Money, timing, and leverage. AAA publishers tend to chase full-price revenue at launch, then pivot to subscriptions once sales momentum slows. It’s the classic curve: recoup investment early, widen the audience later, then return again with deep discounts and DLC bundles toward the tail end. Day-one third‑party drops into subscriptions do happen, but they’re the exception—and rarely from 2K’s biggest franchises.

For players, the absence on Game Pass splits the path in two. Buy now and you’re in the first wave: the discovery, the early meta, the fresh economy, the meme moments, the speedrun times. Wait, and you save cash—maybe a lot of it—at the cost of sitting out the launch cycle. There’s no single right answer; it depends on whether your fun comes from day-one chaos or from arriving later to a polished, discounted package.

How long could the wait be for a subscription drop? Publishers seldom publish those roadmaps. Looking at comparable releases from the same label, it’s often measured in many months, sometimes years. If you’re hoping to play it through Game Pass, set expectations low and patience high. If it does arrive, it will likely be after the big DLC beats have played out.

There are other ways to trim the price tag without waiting on a subscription. Big fall games usually see their first modest discounts within a few months, especially around holiday sales. Publisher promotions—think spring or summer events—sometimes cut deeper. And when expansions start rolling, complete editions tend to undercut the cost of buying each piece separately. None of that is guaranteed, but those patterns repeat often enough to plan around.

Performance and parity questions will hang over launch until review day. The PC version unlocking globally suggests Gearbox is confident in its build across storefronts. On consoles, Series X|S and PS5 will likely offer performance and resolution modes, but we’ll have to see the targets. The Switch 2 timing—three weeks later—signals a bespoke porting effort and some extra optimization work. The big unknowns are cross-play and cross-progression; if your friend group is split across platforms, keep an eye on those details as we get closer to release.

One more practical tip: align your edition with your actual habit. If you love Borderlands endgame loops and plan to grind for months, the higher tiers might be cheaper long term if they bundle future expansions you’d buy anyway. If you usually finish the campaign, dabble in co-op, and move on, the Standard Edition protects your wallet without much FOMO.

The moved-up release date is also a subtle message. Teams don’t pull games forward unless they feel they’ve hit their milestones early and can deliver with confidence. It won’t guarantee a bug-free launch—no modern game can promise that—but it hints at a smoother runway than we’ve seen from many big releases over the past few years.

So where does that leave Game Pass players? In a familiar bind. Microsoft’s first-party titles still hit the service day one, and every so often a high-profile third-party game does too. But with a series as commercially steady as Borderlands and a publisher that values the long tail of full-price sales, a subscription debut at launch was always a long shot. If you’re eager to vault back into Pandora’s chaos on day one, plan for the upfront spend. If you’re comfortable waiting, circle the big sale windows and watch for signs of a subscription deal—but be ready for a long queue.

Key dates to remember: PC unlocks globally at 9 AM PT on September 11, 2025; PS5 and Xbox Series X|S unlock at local midnight on September 12; and the Nintendo Switch 2 version follows on October 3. No Game Pass commit, premium pricing across three tiers, and a studio publicly brimming with confidence. The rest—performance targets, post‑launch cadence, cross-play details—should snap into focus as we get closer to September.