Walking the bustling corridors of 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 many attendees may not recognize: 4Divinity.
"It’s massive by any metric," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the company’s Gamescom deployment. The publisher is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will appear in the associated trailer showcases, and four will be displayed on the public floor across two separate stands. The larger of the two spans roughly 800 square metres.
Doust emphasizes that the scale is matched by the ambition of the presentation: "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and spared no expense." One of the most striking installations is for the 80s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a Hollywood‑hill‑type 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 through while they try the game. It’s all about immersion," Doust explains.
When pressed about the cost, Doust is vague but candid: "I can’t quote exact numbers – that would be crass – but we’re talking millions of dollars. The sheer footprint alone shows the level of investment. It reflects how seriously we’re taking the Western market, something not every Chinese‑origin company does or even knows how to do." The reason this publisher can afford such a splash is its corporate lineage.
4Divinity is one of several entities owned by Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also includes a faux‑diamond jewellery business. GCL’s roots lie in physical game distribution through Epicsoft, a business that has been operating for nearly two decades. While the shift toward digital media has made disc‑based distribution a shrinking segment, Doust notes that GCL will continue producing discs “as long as Sony permits it and there are discs to make,” but the group recognises the need to diversify into digital publishing.
4Divinity itself launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring their titles to Southeast Asia. Doust recalls the difficulty of finding a Western game that resonates in China, citing *Atomic Heart* – which performed strongly in the Chinese market – and *Stalker 2* as rare successes. Those titles were outliers, and the company realised that co‑publishing alone would not fuel the growth required of a Nasdaq‑listed group. "From a growth perspective we needed a global publishing model," Doust says.
The pivot came with the decision to sign Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. Even before Doust arrived in late 2024, the team had already secured a handful of titles, including the ambitious *Showa American Story*.
Today the portfolio has expanded to eight games slated for release over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase. All of the announced titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences, run 15‑20 hours, and sit in the mid‑tier price bracket. This focus on the “squeezed middle” of the market mirrors strategies employed by other indie‑focused publishers such as ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this niche aligns with current player preferences: "People don’t want to commit 200 hours to a live‑service game.
An $80 AAA title is reserved for a few blockbuster franchises, but many gamers are happy to spend $40‑50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure." Developing such games is costly – typically $5‑20 million per title – regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. Doust points out that a game needs to sell roughly a million copies just to break even, a target that is increasingly difficult due to discoverability challenges. What sets 4Divinity apart is its emphasis on new intellectual property.
"Everything you’ll see at Gamescom is brand‑new IP, both in China and the West," Doust says. Larger publishers are reluctant to gamble on untested IPs, especially as development costs soar and AAA studios become franchise‑centric. By contrast, 4Divinity is willing to back multiple fresh concepts simultaneously.
The real turning point for the company, 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 global distribution required a partner with a strong presence in both regions – a role 4Divinity could fill from its Singapore base. *Wukong* illustrated the untapped potential of Chinese developers now able to release console titles after the 2016 lifting of the console ban.
Doust notes that many Chinese studios, having gained experience working with Western partners, are returning home to create console‑ready games. The development budget for *Wukong* was reported at around 300 million yuan (approximately $44.6 million), yet the title sold 30 million copies, delivering a substantial profit margin.
Lower production costs and price‑sensitive Chinese gamers shape 4Divinity’s strategy. By offering affordable, high‑quality experiences, the publisher can test titles in China and then push them into Western markets, where demand for such games remains strong despite major publishers pulling back. Doust describes the current supply situation as a "massive drought of new mid‑tier single‑player games." His mission is to bridge Western appetite for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply chain that Chinese developers can provide.
"When I started working with Jacky Choo, the GCL chairman, my thesis was ‘what if we could find common themes between East and West?’ Themes like loyalty, revenge, and defiance resonate globally. We market the same asset with different cultural lenses to maximize appeal. No one has executed this effectively yet." Even without an aggressive marketing push, games tend to cross borders.
Doust calls this the "do‑nothing" model: the publisher focuses on Chinese marketing, which creates a ripple effect abroad, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed this pattern, selling 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million internationally. Doust hopes to improve that ratio to 60/40 through coordinated cross‑border campaigns, which could dramatically increase overall unit sales. The company is also experimenting in the opposite direction.
Its sole non‑Chinese title, *Guns Of Eschaton*, developed by Cyprus‑based Eschatology Entertainment, was first promoted at Bilibili World, a massive anime and pop‑culture expo in Shanghai. This early exposure generated strong interest, making China the second‑largest wishlist market for the game after the United States.
The massive Gamescom presence, therefore, mirrors this dual‑market strategy. 4Divinity plans to debut its titles in Cologne shortly after showcasing them at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, ensuring simultaneous momentum in both regions rather than a lagged catch‑up approach. Doust sees Gamescom as a Western coming‑out party, a chance to consolidate multiple campaigns into a single, high‑impact event.
"If this is a 4Divinity portfolio play, why not go big?" he concludes.