Walking the corridors of Gamescom, you’ll quickly notice that the most expansive and 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 is occupied by a company most attendees probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. "By any measure, it’s massive," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, when describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm is showcasing six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those in the adjoining trailer presentations, and four on the public show floor across two separate stands.
The larger of the two public areas covers roughly 800 square metres. Doust emphasizes that the scale isn’t limited to square footage; the visual spectacle is equally ambitious. "We’ve hired one of the top booth‑construction firms at Gamescom and spared no expense," he notes. 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 through while they play," Doust explains, underscoring the immersive, experiential focus of the display. When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give an exact figure, calling it "crass" to be precise, but he confirms that the investment runs into the millions. "The sheer size of our footprint makes it clear we’re committing resources at that level.
It reflects how seriously we’re taking the Western market—a stance not all Chinese‑based companies share or understand." The reason this relatively obscure publisher can afford such a lavish presence lies in its corporate parent, Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings. GCL, which also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business, originally grew out of a physical‑distribution operation called Epicsoft that has been in business for nearly two decades. While physical distribution remains a part of the group’s revenue—"as long as Sony continues to produce discs, we’ll keep supporting it"—Doust acknowledges that the model is in decline and that the company needed a digital‑focused growth engine. Enter 4Divinity, launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games into Southeast Asia.
Doust cites the success of *Atomic Heart* in China and later *Stalker 2* as proof that a Western title can achieve significant sales in the Chinese market, but he also points out that such hits are outliers rather than a sustainable growth path for a Nasdaq‑listed entity. "From a growth perspective we needed a truly global publishing model," Doust says. The answer was to start signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release.
By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the company already had a few smaller indie titles and the ambitious *Showa American Story* under contract. Since then the portfolio has swelled to eight games slated for launch over the next two years, marking a period of rapid expansion. All of the titles share common characteristics: 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 independent publishers such as ProbablyMonsters.
"Players today don’t want to invest 200 hours into a live‑service game," Doust explains. "An $80 AAA title is reserved for a handful of blockbuster franchises, but there’s a strong appetite for $40‑$50 single‑player experiences that can be completed in a few weeks." Developing such games is still a substantial financial gamble. Doust estimates production budgets between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. With additional operating costs, a title typically needs to sell around a million copies just to break even—a challenging target given today’s discoverability issues.
4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its commitment to new intellectual property. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new IP," Doust says. Even in China, the titles are fresh to the market, and in the West they are entirely untested. Larger publishers are increasingly risk‑averse, focusing on established franchises rather than betting on multiple new IPs simultaneously.
The catalyst for the publisher’s strategic pivot was the success of *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL handled the game’s global physical PS5 distribution and acted as the publisher in Taiwan, leveraging its Singapore base to bridge the gap for the Chinese developer Game Science. The triumph of *Wukong* highlighted a broader opportunity: since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese studios have begun developing console and PC titles aimed at global audiences. According to a Chinese tax filing, *Wukong* cost roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to develop and sold 30 million copies, delivering a staggering profit margin.
Doust notes that development costs in China are considerably lower and that Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive, shaping 4Divinity’s strategy of offering affordable, high‑quality experiences. Doust’s overarching mission is to match Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced games with the supply of Chinese developers who can deliver them efficiently.
"When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what if we could find themes that resonate both East and West?" he recalls. Themes like loyalty, revenge, and defiance are universal, allowing the same marketing assets to be adapted with different cultural lenses.
The company’s “do‑nothing” model—primarily marketing games in China and letting a ripple effect generate sales elsewhere—has already proven effective. *Wukong* sold about 20 million copies in China and three to four million internationally, an 80/20 split that mirrors the typical pattern for Western publishers in Asia.
Doust hopes to shift that ratio to a 60/40 balance, which would dramatically increase global unit sales without requiring an exponential rise in development spend. While most of 4Divinity’s catalog is Chinese‑originated, the firm does have a non‑Chinese title: *Guns Of Eschaton*, created by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee.
The marketing push for this game began at Bilibili World in Shanghai—an early‑stage move no Western publisher usually makes. The campaign generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wishlist market for the title, trailing only the United States. The massive Gamescom presence is essentially the Western counterpart to the ChinaJoy showcase the company held weeks earlier in Shanghai.
Rather than waiting for a title to achieve massive traction in China before turning to the West, 4Divinity is launching simultaneously in both regions, aiming for synchronized momentum. Gamescom also serves as 4Divinity’s debut on the Western stage. "We could run separate campaigns for each game, and we do to some extent, but Gamescom lets us consolidate all that effort into one high‑impact event," Doust says.
"Since we haven’t done much in the West yet, this is our chance to make some noise. If we’re presenting an entire portfolio, why not go big?"