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 substantial portion of Halls 6 and 7 is occupied by a company many attendees may not recognize: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom deployment. The firm will present six titles inside the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will also appear in the associated trailer showcases, while four games will be displayed on the public floor across two separate stands.
The larger of those stands covers roughly 800 square metres. 4Divinity isn’t just betting on size; it’s also splurging on spectacle. "We’ve hired one of the top booth constructors at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," Doust adds. One of the most striking installations is for the 80s‑style pop‑culture RPG *Showa American Story*.
The set recreates a Hollywood‑hill landscape that, in the game’s alternate timeline, has been renamed Neo‑Yokohama Hills after a United States ruled by Japan. "We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a diner that visitors can walk into to try the game. It’s all about creating an immersive experience," he explains.
When Doust says no expense has been spared, he is not exaggerating. "I can’t quote exact numbers – that would be crass – but we’re talking millions of dollars of investment.
The sheer footprint tells you the level we’re playing at. It reflects how seriously we are taking the Western market, something not every Chinese‑owned firm appreciates or attempts," he says. The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity, despite its deep pockets, lies in its corporate lineage. The publisher is part of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business.
GCL’s core business originated nearly two decades ago with Epicsoft, a physical‑media distribution operation. While that segment remains viable – "as long as Sony continues to produce discs, we’ll keep it going" – Doust acknowledges the market is shrinking, prompting the group to pivot toward digital‑first models.
4Divinity itself launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia. Doust notes that finding a Western title that resonates in China is a tall order. The company succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed strongly in the Chinese market, and later with *Stalker 2*. Yet those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable growth engine for a Nasdaq‑listed entity.
"From a growth standpoint we needed a truly global publishing model," Doust says, and the firm began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. At the time Doust joined in late 2024, the slate already included a few indie projects and the ambitious *Showa American Story*. Since then the portfolio has swelled to eight titles slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid expansion phase.
All of the games 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 a strategy pursued by other publishers such as the U.S.
firm ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this segment captures current player sentiment: "People don’t have time for 200‑hour live‑service games, and they’re not willing to spend $80 on a single title. A $40‑$50 price point for a solid single‑player adventure feels right." Developing a game in this AA bracket typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of geography. "You need to sell about a million copies just to break even, and that’s a tall order in today’s crowded marketplace where discoverability is a major hurdle," Doust observes.
What truly sets 4Divinity apart is its commitment to new intellectual property. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new IP – even in China, these are fresh titles, and absolutely new to the West," he says. Larger studios are increasingly risk‑averse, focusing on established franchises rather than betting on untested concepts.
This risk aversion is especially pronounced in the AAA space, where development budgets can exceed $100 million. The turning point for 4Divinity’s global ambitions was the handling of *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL managed 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 success of *Wukong* highlighted a broader opportunity: since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese studios have returned home to develop console and PC titles. Doust points out that development costs in China are considerably lower – the game’s budget was reported at roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) – while the Chinese market remains highly price‑sensitive. *Wukong* sold an estimated 30 million copies, generating a substantial profit margin.
This profitability, combined with lower production costs, reinforced 4Divinity’s strategy of sourcing affordable, high‑quality games from Chinese developers and exporting them to the West. Doust’s overarching thesis is to match Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply of Chinese studios capable of delivering them efficiently. He explains, "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what common themes exist between East and West? Loyalty, trust, revenge – these universal ideas let us market the same game with different cultural lenses.
No one has done this effectively at scale." The company’s approach can be summed up as a "do‑nothing" model in the West: they market primarily in China, allowing a ripple effect to generate modest sales overseas. *Wukong* exemplified this, with roughly 20 million units sold in China and 3‑4 million abroad – an 80/20 split. Doust hopes to shift that balance to 60/40 by intensifying cross‑border marketing, which could dramatically increase total unit sales and potentially produce a best‑selling title relative to its modest development budget.
To illustrate the two‑way flow, 4Divinity recently introduced *Guns Of Eschaton*, a game developed outside China by a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee. The first promotional push took place at Bilibili World in Shanghai, an anime and pop‑culture convention rarely visited by Western publishers at such an early stage. The early buzz propelled China to become the second‑largest wishlist market for the title after the United States, confirming the viability of the east‑to‑west pipeline. The massive Gamescom presence is essentially a Western launch party for a slate that has already been showcased at ChinaJoy in Shanghai weeks earlier.
Doust emphasizes the timing: "We don’t want to wait until a game has already gained massive traction in China before we chase the Western audience. We aim to hit both markets simultaneously." Beyond individual game campaigns, Gamescom offers 4Divinity a single platform to amplify its brand in the West. "We could run separate campaigns for each title, and we do to some extent, but Gamescom lets us consolidate everything into one high‑impact event. We haven’t done much in the West yet, so this is our chance to make some noise," Doust says.
"If this is a portfolio play, why not go big?"