Why an Unknown Publisher Is Investing Millions in Its Gamescom Showcase

Walking through Gamescom, the massive, eye‑catching booths are usually associated with household names – Capcom, Xbox, Sega, EA, Ubisoft, and the like. This year, however, a sizeable portion of Halls 6 and 7 is dominated by a brand most visitors will not recognise: 4Divinity. "It's enormous by any standard," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The company is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of them featured in trailer showcases, and four games on the public showfloor across two separate stands.

The larger of those stands covers roughly 800 square metres. Doust emphasizes that the scale is matched by the spectacle: "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and spared no expense." One of the most striking displays belongs to the 80s‑style pop‑culture RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a Hollywood‑Hills‑like landscape that the game re‑imagines as Neo Yokohama Hills, an alternate timeline where Japan governs the United States. "We built a seven‑metre‑high Golden Gate Bridge draped with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into to try the game.

It’s all about immersion," Doust explains. When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give an exact figure, calling it "crass," but confirms that the investment runs into the millions.

"The sheer size of our footprint shows the level of commitment. It signals how seriously we are taking the western market – something not every Chinese‑owned company understands or pursues." The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity is that it sits under the umbrella of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery line.

GCL’s roots lie in physical game distribution through a company called Epicsoft, a business that has been operating for nearly two decades. While physical distribution remains a component of the group – "as long as Sony continues to produce discs," Doust notes – the market is clearly in decline, prompting a shift toward digital‑first strategies. 4Divinity was launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping western developers bring their titles to Southeast Asia. Doust cites the success of *Atomic Heart* – which performed strongly in China – and the subsequent partnership on *Stalker 2* as proof that western games can find a foothold in the Chinese market, though such cases are rare.

"Those were outliers," he says. As a Nasdaq‑listed entity, GCL needed a growth engine that could scale globally, and 4Divinity became that engine.

The company began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release before Doust joined in late 2024. At that point, the pipeline already included a handful of smaller indie projects and the ambitious *Showa American Story*. Since then the portfolio has expanded to eight titles slated for release over the next two years, marking a period of rapid growth. All of the games share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15‑20 hours, positioned in the mid‑tier price band.

This focus on the "squeezed middle" of the market mirrors the strategy of US indie publisher ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this segment captures what many gamers currently desire: "Players don’t have 200 hours to devote to a live‑service.

An $80 blockbuster is reserved for a few flagship franchises, but most people are happy to spend $40‑50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure." Developing such titles is costly – typically $5‑20 million per game – regardless of whether the studio is based in China or the West. With additional operating expenses, a title often needs to sell around a million copies just to break even, a target that is increasingly hard to hit given discoverability challenges. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its commitment to new intellectual property. Every title on display at Gamescom is a brand‑new IP, many of which are debut releases even in China.

Larger publishers tend to avoid betting on untested IPs, especially after the rise of risk‑averse AAA development that favours established franchises. Doust points out that the rising cost of AAA production has turned many big studios into franchise factories, leaving room for smaller publishers to champion fresh ideas.

The pivotal moment for 4Divinity’s global ambitions, according to Doust, was the handling of *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL managed the game’s physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as publisher in Taiwan, leveraging its Singapore base to bridge the gap for the Chinese developer Game Science, which otherwise struggled to secure global distribution. *Wukong*’s triumph highlighted a broader opportunity.

Since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home and set up console‑oriented studios. *Black Myth* was among the first to break out, and more are following.

With two offices in China, GCL enjoys direct access to this emerging talent pool. Financially, *Wukong* was produced for roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) – a modest sum compared with typical Western AAA budgets – yet it sold 30 million copies, delivering a massive profit margin. Doust notes that development costs in China are generally lower and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive, shaping 4Divinity’s strategy to offer affordable, high‑quality experiences.

Doust’s overarching thesis is to match western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply of Chinese developers capable of delivering them efficiently. He explains, "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what common themes can we find between East and West?

Loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge – those are universal. We market the same game with different cultural lenses, tailoring the message to each audience.

No one has done this effectively yet." Even without an aggressive marketing push, games tend to cross borders organically. Doust describes this as the "do‑nothing" business model: the publisher focuses on Chinese marketing, which creates a ripple effect in the West, typically yielding an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere).

*Wukong* followed that pattern, selling 20 million units in China and around three‑four million abroad. The goal for 4Divinity is to shift that ratio toward a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase total unit sales. Doust speculates that if *Wukong* had been marketed with a stronger two‑way strategy, it might have become the best‑selling game of all time relative to its development budget. To illustrate the two‑way approach, Doust cites the company’s sole non‑Chinese title, *Guns Of Eschaton*, developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee.

The first promotional move was to showcase the game at Bilibili World, Shanghai’s massive anime and pop‑culture convention – a step no western publisher typically takes so early. The resulting buzz made China the second‑largest wishlist market for the game after the United States. Thus, the massive Gamescom presence is a physical manifestation of this cross‑border strategy. The titles will appear in Cologne shortly after being shown at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, allowing the publisher to generate simultaneous momentum in both markets rather than chasing a post‑China success story.

Gamescom also serves as 4Divinity’s western debut party. While the company does run individual game campaigns, the trade show lets them bundle all their announcements into a single, high‑impact event.

Doust concludes, "If we are using Gamescom to introduce our portfolio and ourselves to the west, why not go big?"