Walking the bustling corridors of Gamescom, the most eye‑catching booths are usually attached to household names – Capcom, Xbox, Sega, EA, Ubisoft and the like. This year, however, a sizeable portion of Halls 6 and 7 is occupied by a company most visitors probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint.
The company is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those featured in dedicated trailer showcases, and four games on the public floor across two separate stands, the larger of which covers roughly 800 square metres. The ambition isn’t limited to square footage; 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 design," he notes.
One of the highlights is the area dedicated to the 1980s‑style RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a Hollywood‑Hills‑in‑future‑Japan landscape, renamed Neo‑Yokohama Hills, where the United States is under Japanese rule. "We built a seven‑metre‑high Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk through while playing the game," Doust explains. The aim is to create an immersive, hands‑on experience rather than a simple demo.
When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give exact numbers, calling it "crass" to do so, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions. "The size of our footprint alone shows we’re committing resources at that level. It reflects how seriously we’re taking the Western market – something not every Chinese‑owned publisher is prepared to do," he says.
The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity lies in its corporate lineage. The publisher is part of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a diversified group that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business. GCL’s roots are in physical game distribution through a company called Epicsoft, a business that has operated for nearly two decades.
While physical media remain a component of the group’s revenue – "as long as Sony continues to produce discs," Doust adds – the company acknowledges that disc distribution is a shrinking market and therefore needs a digital‑focused growth engine. Enter 4Divinity, launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring titles to Southeast Asia. Doust cites the success of *Atomic Heart* in China and later *Stalker 2* as proof that a Western game can thrive in the Chinese market, but he also notes that such cases are outliers rather than the norm. "We realized that relying on a few lucky titles wouldn’t sustain the growth GCL expects as a Nasdaq‑listed firm," Doust says.
The answer was to pivot toward global publishing of Chinese‑made games. The shift began before Doust joined in late 2024; the company had already signed a handful of 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 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 strategies employed by other indie‑focused publishers such as ProbablyMonsters. "Players today don’t have the time or appetite for 200‑hour live‑service games," Doust observes. "The $80‑plus AAA titles are reserved for a few blockbuster franchises. Most gamers are willing to spend $40‑$50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure." Developing such games costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West.
To break even, a title typically needs to sell around a million copies – a challenging target given today’s discoverability issues. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on new intellectual property.
"Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new IP," Doust says. Even in China, many of these concepts are fresh, and they are entirely unknown to Western audiences. Larger publishers are increasingly risk‑averse, focusing on established franchises rather than betting on multiple new IPs, especially given the soaring costs of AAA development.
The catalyst for the publisher’s global ambition was the distribution of *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL handled the physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as the Taiwanese publisher, leveraging its Singapore base to bridge the gap for Game Science, a Chinese developer that lacked the infrastructure to manage global logistics. The success of *Wukong* highlighted a broader opportunity: since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese studios have begun creating console and PC titles aimed at both domestic and overseas markets.
*Wukong* reportedly cost about 300 million yuan (roughly $44.6 million) to develop and has sold 30 million copies, delivering a substantial profit margin. Doust points out that development costs in China are generally lower, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive, which shapes 4Divinity’s pricing and marketing strategies. He believes there is a “massive drought of supply” for affordable, high‑quality single‑player games, and the publisher aims to fill that gap.
The company’s mission, according to Doust, is to match Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply of Chinese developers who can produce them efficiently. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked whether we could find thematic common ground between East and West. Themes like loyalty, revenge, defiance resonate everywhere.
By tailoring the marketing message to each region while using the same assets, we can create a unified yet locally relevant campaign," he explains. In practice, 4Divinity’s model often involves a “do‑nothing” approach: the game is marketed primarily in China, which creates a ripple effect that boosts sales in the West, typically resulting in an 80/20 split favoring China.
*Wukong* followed this pattern, selling about 20 million copies in China and three to four million elsewhere. Doust hopes to shift that balance to a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase global unit sales and potentially position a title as one of the best‑selling games ever when measured against its modest development budget. The publisher is also experimenting with reverse promotion – taking a Western‑developed title, *Guns Of Eschaton*, and launching it first in China via Bilibili World, a massive anime and pop‑culture expo in Shanghai.
This early exposure generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wishlist market after the United States, demonstrating the viability of a two‑way Silk‑Road style marketing pipeline. Thus, the colossal Gamescom presence is a physical manifestation of this dual‑market strategy. By showcasing its portfolio in Cologne shortly after a debut at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, 4Divinity aims to generate simultaneous momentum in both regions rather than waiting for a domestic hit to trickle abroad. Doust concludes, "Gamescom gives us a single platform to make a loud introduction to the West.
If we’re presenting a whole portfolio, why not go big?"