Strolling through Gamescom, you’ll quickly notice that the most eye‑catching booths belong to 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 that most visitors will not recognize: 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 which will also appear in the trailer showcases, and four games will be displayed on the public floor across two separate stands.
The larger of those stands covers roughly 800 square metres. Doust stresses that the scale is matched by the spectacle: "We’re working with one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and have spared no expense." One of the most striking installations is for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*.
The set recreates the Hollywood Hills, re‑imagined as “Neo Yokohama Hills” in an alternate timeline where Japan governs 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 through to experience the game," Doust explains. The goal is to make the booth an immersive, hands‑on environment rather than a static display.
When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give a precise figure, calling it "crass" to do so, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars. "The sheer size of our footprint shows how seriously we’re taking the Western market—something not every Chinese‑owned company is willing or able to do," he says. 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 a faux‑diamond jewellery line.
GCL originally grew out of a physical‑distribution business called Epicsoft, which has been operating for nearly two decades. While physical media remain a part of the group’s revenue—"as long as Sony continues to produce discs, we’ll keep supporting it"—Doust acknowledges that the market is shrinking, prompting a shift toward digital‑first publishing. 4Divinity was launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia. Doust notes that finding a Western title that resonates strongly in China is a rare feat.
The company succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed exceptionally well in the Chinese market, and later with *Stalker 2*. However, those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable growth engine for a Nasdaq‑listed parent company. "From a growth perspective we needed a global publishing model," Doust says, and 4Divinity began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release.
By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the portfolio already included a handful of indie titles and the ambitious *Showa American Story*. Since then the slate has expanded to eight games slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase.
All of the titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences, run 15‑20 hours, and sit in the mid‑tier price range. This focus was not pre‑planned but emerged as a coherent strategy aimed at the "squeezed middle" of the market—a segment also being explored by US‑based ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this is exactly what many gamers crave today: "People don’t have 200 hours to pour into a live‑service game. The $80‑plus AAA titles are reserved for a few franchises, but there’s a willingness to spend $40‑$50 on a high‑quality single‑player adventure." Developing such games is costly, whether in China or the West.
Doust estimates development budgets of $5‑$20 million per title, meaning a game must sell roughly a million copies just to break even—a daunting target given the crowded marketplace and discoverability challenges. 4Divinity’s approach diverges from larger publishers in another key way: every game it showcases at Gamescom is a brand‑new intellectual property. Even in China, these titles are fresh, and in the West they are completely unknown.
Larger studios tend to avoid betting on untested IPs, especially as AAA development becomes increasingly risk‑averse and franchise‑driven. "Unless you already own a franchise, it’s hard to get a seat at the table," Doust remarks, noting that a few emerging Chinese studios are exceptions. The turning point for 4Divinity’s global ambition, according to Doust, was the success of *Black Myth: Wukong*.
GCL handled 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. The console ban in China was lifted in 2016, prompting many Chinese studios that had been working abroad to return home and focus on console and PC development. *Wukong* was one of the first high‑profile releases from this new wave.
Financially, *Wukong* illustrates the cost advantage of Chinese development. A tax filing suggests a development cost of about 300 million yuan (roughly $44.6 million).
By June of this year the game had sold 30 million copies, delivering a massive profit margin. Doust points out that lower production costs and price‑sensitive Chinese gamers shape 4Divinity’s strategy: "Development is cheaper in China, and players are very price‑aware. That creates a supply gap in the West, where many publishers have pulled back from mid‑budget single‑player games." His mission is to match Western demand for affordable, narrative‑driven experiences with the supply that Chinese developers can provide. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what if we could find common themes between East and West?
Themes like loyalty, revenge, defiance—these are universal. We then market the same asset with a different cultural lens for each region.
No one has done that effectively yet." Doust describes a "do‑nothing" model where a game is marketed primarily in China, creating a ripple effect abroad. *Wukong* sold about 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million elsewhere, an 80/20 split. He believes that by actively promoting games in both markets, the ratio could shift to 60/40, dramatically increasing global sales. "If we could replicate that balance, we might end up with one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its development budget," he muses.
The publisher is already testing this two‑way flow. Its only non‑Chinese title at the moment, *Guns Of Eschaton*, was developed by a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee. After announcing the game, 4Divinity immediately took it to Bilibili World, a massive anime and pop‑culture expo in Shanghai—a move no Western publisher typically makes so early in a campaign.
The result was a surge of interest that placed China as the second‑largest wishlist market behind the United States. Thus, the massive Gamescom presence is a direct reflection of that strategy. The company plans to roll out its games in Cologne shortly after showcasing them at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, aiming for simultaneous exposure rather than a staggered, China‑first approach.
Doust explains that Gamescom serves as the Western coming‑out party for 4Divinity: "We could run individual campaigns for each title, but Gamescom lets us consolidate everything into one high‑impact event. Since we haven’t done much in the West yet, this is our chance to make a splash. If this is a portfolio play, why not go big?"