Walking through Gamescom, the world’s largest gaming expo, you’re likely to notice massive booths bearing well‑known names – Capcom, Xbox, Sega, EA, Ubisoft, and the like. This year, however, a substantial portion of Halls 6 and 7 will be dominated by a company most visitors probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. “It’s gigantic by any measure,” says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK operation, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm will showcase six titles in the closed‑door B2B area, five of those in dedicated trailer rooms, and four on the public show‑floor across two separate stands, the larger of which spans roughly 800 square metres.
The ambition isn’t limited to size; Doust stresses that the company has also hired one of the event’s premier booth builders and spared no expense on the production. One of the most eye‑catching installations is for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a Hollywood‑Hills‑style landscape that, in the game’s alternate timeline, has been renamed Neo‑Yokohama Hills after Japan takes control of the United States.
“We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into to try the game,” Doust explains. The experience is designed to be immersive, allowing attendees to step directly into the game’s world. When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give an exact number, calling it “crass,” but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars.
“The scale of our footprint alone shows we’re committing resources at that level. It reflects how seriously we’re taking the Western market—a stance not all Chinese‑origin publishers share or understand.” The reason this relatively unknown company can afford such a splash is its parent group, Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, which also owns a range of other businesses, including a jewellery brand that mimics diamonds.
GCL’s core revenue historically came from physical game distribution through Epicsoft, a business that has been operating for almost two decades. While the physical market is shrinking—especially after Sony’s recent moves away from disc‑based releases—GCL still maintains the operation as long as there are discs to produce, acknowledging that the segment is in decline and that a digital‑first strategy is essential for future growth.
4Divinity was launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring their titles to Southeast Asia. Doust notes that finding a Western game that resonates in China is challenging. The company succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed strongly in the Chinese market, and later with *Stalker 2*.
However, those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable model. “As a Nasdaq‑listed company, GCL needed a growth engine that could operate globally,” Doust says. The answer was to start signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release.
The shift began before Doust joined in late 2024, with a handful of smaller indie titles and the ambitious *Showa American Story*. Since then the portfolio has expanded to eight games slated for release over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase. All of the titles share common characteristics: they are primarily single‑player experiences, run about 15‑20 hours, and sit in the mid‑tier price bracket. This focus on the “squeezed middle” of the market mirrors a strategy pursued by other publishers such as the U.S.
firm ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this segment captures what many gamers currently want: a concise, narrative‑driven adventure that doesn’t demand the hundreds of hours required by live‑service titles.
“People aren’t looking to invest 200 hours in a game. An $80 AAA title is reserved for a few blockbuster franchises, but there’s a willingness to spend $40‑$50 on a solid single‑player experience.” Developing games in this range typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West.
Doust points out that to break even, a title must sell roughly a million copies—a tall order given today’s discoverability challenges. Consequently, 4Divinity’s emphasis on the AA tier is both a market opportunity and a risk‑mitigation tactic. Another differentiator is the focus on brand‑new intellectual property. Doust explains that every game on display at Gamescom is a fresh IP, especially in the West where larger publishers are reluctant to gamble on untested concepts.
The AAA sector has become increasingly risk‑averse, relying on established franchises to justify massive budgets, leaving space for smaller studios to innovate. The pivotal moment for 4Divinity, 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 lacked the infrastructure to do so itself. The success of *Wukong* highlighted a broader trend: since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad have returned home, forming new console and PC studios.
*Wukong* reportedly cost around 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to develop and sold 30 million copies, delivering a staggering profit margin. Doust notes that production costs in China are significantly lower than in the West, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive.
This dynamic shapes 4Divinity’s strategy: offer affordable, high‑quality experiences that appeal to both Chinese and Western audiences. Doust’s overarching thesis is to find thematic common ground between East and West—universal concepts like loyalty, revenge, and defiance—and market the same game with culturally tuned messaging.
He believes few publishers have executed this cross‑cultural approach effectively. The company’s “do‑nothing” model, as Doust calls it, involves minimal marketing effort in China while allowing organic buzz to spill over into Western markets, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed this pattern, selling 20 million units in China and about three to four million abroad.
4Divinity hopes to shift that balance to a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase overall unit sales and potentially make a title one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its modest development budget. To test the model in the opposite direction, 4Divinity recently launched *Guns Of Eschaton*, a game developed outside China by a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee. The first promotional push took place at Bilibili World, a massive anime and pop‑culture expo in Shanghai—an unconventional move for a Western‑origin title.
The early exposure generated enough interest that China became the second‑largest wishlist market for the game, trailing only the United States. The massive Gamescom presence is therefore a direct reflection of this dual‑market strategy.
By debuting its portfolio in Cologne shortly after a ChinaJoy showcase in Shanghai, 4Divinity aims to avoid the typical lag where a game gains traction in one region before being introduced to the other. Instead, the company seeks simultaneous exposure, creating a synchronized launch rhythm.
Beyond individual titles, Gamescom serves as a Western “coming‑out party” for 4Divinity itself. While the publisher does run separate campaigns for each game, the trade show allows it to consolidate its brand messaging into a single, high‑impact event.
Doust concludes, “If we’re using Gamescom to present our portfolio and introduce ourselves to the West, why not go big? The scale of our booth mirrors the ambition of our strategy.”