Strolling through the bustling corridors of Gamescom, you’ll quickly notice that the most expansive, eye‑catching booths belong 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 visitors probably don’t recognize: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK operation, when describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those in the accompanying trailer showcases, and four titles on the public showfloor across two separate stands.
The larger of the two public spaces spans roughly 800 square metres. But the scale isn’t limited to square footage; the company has also poured resources into the visual spectacle. "We’ve hired one of the top booth‑building firms at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," Doust adds. One of the most striking installations is for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*.
The set recreates the Hollywood Hills—rebranded as the Neo‑Yokohama Hills in the game’s alternate timeline where Japan governs the United States. "We built a seven‑metre‑high Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into to try the game. It’s all about immersion," he explains.
When asked about the budget, Doust declines to give an exact number, noting that "it would be crass" to do so, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars. "The sheer size of our footprint signals the level of commitment we’re making.
It shows how seriously we’re taking the Western market—something not every Chinese‑origin company can claim or even understand." The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity, despite its willingness to spend such sums, lies in its corporate lineage. 4Divinity is part of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business.
GCL’s roots stretch back nearly two decades through a physical‑distribution arm called Epicsoft. That segment remains important, especially while Sony continues to produce discs, but Doust acknowledges that physical media is a declining revenue stream.
"As long as discs are being made, we’ll keep the distribution side alive, but we know it can’t be the core of our future growth," he says. Recognising the need to pivot, GCL launched 4Divinity in 2022 as a co‑publisher that would help Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia.
Doust points out that finding a Western title that resonates in China is a tall order. Their early successes—*Atomic Heart*, which performed strongly in the Chinese market, and *Stalker 2*—were outliers rather than a sustainable model. "Those wins proved the concept, but they weren’t enough to fuel the growth GCL expects as a Nasdaq‑listed company," Doust notes.
Consequently, 4Divinity shifted its focus to global publishing of Chinese‑developed games. By the time Doust arrived in late 2024, the company had already signed a handful of titles, including smaller 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 rapid expansion phase. All of the titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15–20 hours, positioned at a mid‑tier price point. This wasn’t a pre‑planned formula; it emerged organically as a sensible response to market realities.
Doust likens it to the strategy pursued by U.S. studio ProbablyMonsters, aiming at the “squeezed middle” of the market—players who lack the time or desire to commit to 200‑hour live‑service games, yet are willing to spend $40‑$50 on a polished single‑player adventure. Developing such games is costly, typically requiring $5‑$20 million in production budgets, 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 daunting target given today’s discoverability challenges.
4Divinity’s approach diverges further by championing brand‑new intellectual property. Even within China, many of the games they showcase are fresh IPs, and in the West they are entirely unknown. Larger publishers tend to shy away from betting on untested IPs, especially after the rise of AAA development costs that have turned major studios into franchise‑centric operations.
Only a few emerging Chinese companies are willing to take that risk. 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, navigating Western distribution channels was complex; 4Divinity’s Singapore base allowed it to bridge that gap. *Wukong* arrived at a pivotal moment. After China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home and formed console‑focused studios. *Black Myth: Wukong* was among the first high‑profile releases from this new wave, and its performance signalled a broader opportunity.
The game reportedly cost just over 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to develop, yet it sold 30 million copies, delivering a substantial profit margin. Doust emphasizes that development costs in China remain considerably lower than in the West, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive.
This economic environment shapes 4Divinity’s strategy: leverage cost‑effective Chinese production to create affordable, high‑quality experiences that can be marketed to Western audiences hungry for fresh content. His overarching mission is to align Western demand for "new experiences that don’t break the bank" with the supply side that Chinese developers can provide. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, the GCL chairman, I asked: what common themes exist between East and West?
Loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge—these universal ideas let us market the same game with different cultural lenses," Doust explains. He believes few have executed this cross‑cultural branding effectively. Even without an active marketing push, games tend to cross borders organically—a phenomenon Doust calls the "do‑nothing" business model.
In that scenario, a publisher focuses on Chinese marketing, and a ripple effect generates modest sales abroad, typically an 80/20 split (80 % of sales in China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed that pattern, selling roughly 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million internationally. 4Divinity aims to improve that ratio to about 60/40, believing that a more balanced split would dramatically increase total unit sales. Doust speculates that if *Wukong* had achieved a 60/40 distribution, it could have become the best‑selling game of all time relative to its development budget—a tantalising prospect.
The company is also experimenting with reverse flow: taking Western games into China early. Their first non‑Chinese title, *Guns Of Eschaton*—developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee—was launched at Bilibili World, China’s massive anime and pop‑culture convention in Shanghai.
No other Western publisher has debuted a game there so early in its lifecycle. The move generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wishlist market for the title, trailing only the United States.
The massive Gamescom presence mirrors this two‑way strategy. 4Divinity’s titles will appear in Cologne shortly after their debut at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, allowing simultaneous exposure in both markets rather than a staggered rollout that would force the company to chase after Chinese success.
Beyond individual game campaigns, Gamescom serves as 4Divinity’s western coming‑out party. While the company does run game‑by‑game marketing, the trade show offers a chance to consolidate its entire portfolio under one high‑visibility banner. "If we’re using Gamescom to introduce our slate and ourselves to the West, why not make a splash?" Doust concludes, underscoring the rationale behind the unprecedented scale of the booth.