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 company most attendees probably don’t recognize: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK operation, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint.
The company will present six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those in the accompanying trailer showcases, and four on the public floor across two separate stands, the larger of which covers roughly 800 square metres. The ambition is not limited to size; Doust stresses that the visual spectacle is equally important.
"We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and spared no expense on the build." One of the showcased experiences, the 80s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*, features a recreated Hollywood‑Hills‑style set renamed Neo Yokohama Hills, set in an 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 players can walk into to start the game.
It’s all about immersion," Doust adds. When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give a precise number, calling it "crass" to do so, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions.
"The scale of our footprint alone shows we’re putting serious money behind our western push—something not every Chinese‑owned company is willing or able to do." The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity lies in its corporate lineage. The publisher is one of several subsidiaries of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business. GCL’s roots are in physical game distribution through Epicsoft, a business that has operated for nearly two decades. Doust acknowledges that physical distribution is a shrinking segment, especially after recent Sony announcements, but notes that the group will continue producing discs as long as the market permits.
"We know the disc business is declining, so we needed a digital‑first growth engine," he explains. Enter 4Divinity, launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping western developers reach Southeast Asian markets.
Doust points out that finding a western title that resonates in China is exceptionally difficult. The publisher 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.
"For a Nasdaq‑listed company like GCL, we needed a strategy that could deliver global scale," Doust says. The answer was to start signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. The effort began before Doust joined in late 2024, with a handful of indie titles and the ambitious *Showa American Story* already in the pipeline.
Since then the portfolio has swelled to eight games slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid expansion period. All of the titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15‑20 hours, priced in the mid‑tier range.
This focus on the "squeezed middle" of the market mirrors the approach of US indie publisher ProbablyMonsters. "Players today don’t want to invest 200 hours in a live‑service game, nor can they afford $80 AAA titles. They’re willing to spend $40‑50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure," Doust observes. Developing such games is costly, typically requiring $5‑20 million in production budgets.
Whether made in China or the West, a title must sell roughly a million copies just to break even, a tall order given today’s discoverability challenges. Consequently, 4Divinity’s emphasis on the AA segment is both a financial necessity and a market opportunity.
Beyond pricing, 4Divinity distinguishes itself by championing entirely new intellectual property. Even in China, the games are fresh, and in the West they are completely unknown. Larger publishers shy away from betting on multiple new IPs simultaneously, especially as AAA studios become increasingly risk‑averse and franchise‑driven. "Unless you already own a franchise, it’s hard to get a foothold in AAA development," Doust notes, adding that a few emerging Chinese studios are beginning to break that mold.
The turning point for 4Divinity, 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, leveraging its Singapore base to bridge the gap for the Chinese developer Game Science.
The title’s triumph 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 massive profit margin. Doust explains that development costs in China are significantly lower, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive, shaping 4Divinity’s strategy to offer affordable yet high‑quality experiences. Doust’s mission is to match western demand for fresh, reasonably priced games with the supply of Chinese developers capable of delivering them efficiently.
"My thesis with GCL’s chairman Jacky Choo was to find common storytelling themes—loyalty, revenge, defiance—that resonate across cultures, then market the same asset with different cultural lenses," he says. He believes few have executed this cross‑cultural marketing effectively. The company also runs what Doust calls a "do‑nothing" model: they market a game primarily in China, which creates a ripple effect abroad, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split (80 % China, 20 % elsewhere).
*Wukong* followed this pattern, selling 20 million units in China and about three‑four million internationally. Doust hopes to shift the balance toward a 60/40 split through more aggressive cross‑border promotion, which could dramatically increase total sales volumes.
To illustrate the bidirectional approach, 4Divinity recently launched *Guns Of Eschaton*, its first non‑Chinese title, developed by Cyprus‑based Eschatology Entertainment. The marketing campaign began at Bilibili World in Shanghai—an unprecedented early‑stage push for a western game—quickly making China the second‑largest wishlist market after the United States.
The massive Gamescom presence is the western counterpart to that strategy. By showcasing the portfolio in Cologne shortly after a ChinaJoy debut, 4Divinity aims to generate simultaneous buzz in both markets rather than playing catch‑up after a game has already saturated the Chinese scene. Doust sees Gamescom as a "coming‑out party" for the publisher in the west, allowing them to consolidate multiple game launches into a single, high‑impact event.
"If we’re using Gamescom to introduce our portfolio and ourselves to western audiences, why not go big?" he concludes.