Strolling through Gamescom, the massive, eye‑catching booths are usually attached to household names—Capcom, Xbox, Sega, EA, Ubisoft, and the like. This year, however, a sizable portion of Halls 6 and 7 will be dominated by a company most attendees probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. "It’s huge by any standard," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint.
The company will showcase six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those in dedicated trailer showcases, and four titles on the public show‑floor across two separate stands. The larger of the two public stands occupies roughly 800 square metres. Doust emphasizes that the scale is matched by the spectacle: "We’ve hired one of the best booth‑builders at Gamescom and spared no expense." One of the most striking installations belongs to the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*. The booth recreates a Hollywood‑hills‑style landscape that the game re‑imagines as Neo‑Yokohama Hills, 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 into to try the game. It’s all very experiential," Doust explains. When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give an exact figure, calling it "crass" to disclose, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars.
"The sheer size of our footprint shows we’re committing resources at that level. It reflects how seriously we’re taking the Western market—a seriousness that not every Chinese‑owned company possesses or even understands." The reason this publisher can afford such a lavish presence is that 4Divinity is part of a larger Singapore‑based conglomerate, GCL Global Holdings, which also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery line. GCL’s core business originated nearly two decades ago with Epicsoft, a physical‑distribution firm that shipped game discs.
While that model is under pressure—especially after recent Sony announcements—GCL still maintains the disc‑distribution arm as long as Sony continues to produce physical media. Doust admits the segment is declining, so the group has been looking for a digital‑first growth engine. Enter 4Divinity. Launched in 2022, the company initially acted as a co‑publisher for Western developers seeking entry into Southeast Asian markets.
Doust notes that finding a Western title that resonates strongly in China is a rare feat. The firm succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed exceptionally well in the Chinese market, and later replicated that success with *Stalker 2*.
However, those titles were outliers rather than a sustainable growth engine. As a Nasdaq‑listed entity, GCL needed a strategy that could deliver global scale. Doust says the answer was to transition from regional co‑publishing to worldwide publishing of Chinese‑developed games. Even before he joined in late 2024, the team had signed a handful of titles—including a few indie projects and the ambitious *Showa American Story*.
Since then the portfolio has swelled to eight games slated for release over the next two years, marking a period of rapid expansion. All of the announced titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences, run roughly 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 mid‑size publishers such as the US‑based ProbablyMonsters.
Doust believes this segment captures what many gamers currently crave. "Players don’t have the time or desire to invest 200 hours in a live‑service game.
They’re willing to spend $40‑$50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure," he says. Developing a game in this AA tier typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. With additional operating expenses, a title often needs to sell around a million copies just to break even—a challenging target given today’s discoverability hurdles. 4Divinity’s approach diverges from the industry norm in another key way: every title it is presenting at Gamescom is a brand‑new IP.
Even in China, these games are fresh, and they are entirely unknown in the West. Larger publishers are generally reluctant to gamble on multiple new IPs simultaneously; the rising cost of development has pushed AAA studios toward franchise‑centric, low‑risk models. Only a handful of emerging Chinese studios are willing to take the opposite route. The catalyst for 4Divinity’s global pivot, according to Doust, was the success of *Black Myth: Wukong*.
GCL handled the game’s physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as the publisher in Taiwan. Because the developer, Game Science, is a Chinese studio, it lacked the infrastructure to manage global logistics, giving 4Divinity a unique entry point.
Wukong’s triumph highlighted a broader opportunity. After China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home and formed console‑ and PC‑focused studios.
*Black Myth: Wukong* was among the first to break out, and more are following. With two offices in China, GCL now has direct access to a pipeline of cost‑efficient, high‑quality games. Tax filings suggest Wukong’s development budget was roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million), yet the title reportedly sold 30 million copies, delivering a massive profit margin. Doust points out that development costs in China remain considerably lower than in Western markets, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive.
This economic reality shapes 4Divinity’s strategy: they aim to bring affordable, high‑quality experiences to Western audiences while leveraging the lower production costs of Chinese studios. He argues that most major publishers have retreated from this space for financial reasons, but player interest in well‑crafted single‑player games has not vanished, creating a "massive drought of supply." His mission is to bridge Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply that Chinese developers can provide. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked, ‘What if we can find common themes between East and West?’ It’s not as hard as it sounds—ideas like loyalty, revenge, defiance are universal.
We market the same game with different cultural lenses to resonate in each region. No one has done this effectively yet." Even without a dedicated cross‑border push, games tend to travel across markets, albeit slowly. Doust calls this the company’s "do‑nothing" business: they market primarily in China, and a ripple effect carries the title into the West, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed that pattern, selling about 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million abroad.
Doust believes that by actively promoting titles in both directions, the split could shift to a more balanced 60/40, which would dramatically increase total unit sales and could potentially produce one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its modest development budget. The publisher is already testing this two‑way approach.
Its sole non‑Chinese title, *Guns Of Eschaton*, was developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee. The marketing campaign began in China, with the first major push at Bilibili World, Shanghai’s massive anime and pop‑culture convention.
Doust notes that no Western publisher has ever launched a campaign that early in the Chinese market, and the move paid off: China quickly became the game’s second‑largest wishlist market after the United States. The massive Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market strategy. 4Divinity plans to roll out its games in Cologne just weeks after showcasing them at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, ensuring simultaneous exposure in both regions rather than a staggered, catch‑up approach. While the company could run individual campaigns for each title, Gamescom offers a single, high‑impact platform to introduce the entire portfolio and the brand itself to Western audiences.
"If we’re using Gamescom as a portfolio launch, why not go big?" Doust concludes.