Strolling through Gamescom, you’ll quickly notice that the most expansive, 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 visitors probably don’t recognize: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any metric," explains Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, when describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The company is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will appear in the accompanying trailer showcases, and four games will be displayed on the public showfloor across two separate stands.
The larger of those stands covers roughly 800 square metres. But the scale isn’t limited to square footage; the spectacle is equally ambitious. "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and spared no expense," Doust adds. One of the highlights is a recreation of the Hollywood Hills—rebranded as the Neo‑Yokohama Hills for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*, which imagines a timeline where Japan governs the United States.
"We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully functional diner that visitors can walk into to experience the game," Doust says. The installation is designed to be immersive, offering attendees a hands‑on taste of the title’s world. When pressed about the cost, Doust is vague but emphatic: "I can’t disclose exact numbers—it would be crass—but we’re talking millions of dollars.
The sheer size of our presence makes it clear we’re committing at that level. It shows how seriously we’re taking the Western market, something not every Chinese‑based firm understands or attempts." The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity despite its lavish spend is that it operates under the umbrella of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a diversified group that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery brand.
GCL’s roots lie in physical game distribution through Epicsoft, a business that has been active for nearly two decades. While physical media remains a component of the group’s revenue—"we’ll keep producing discs as long as Sony permits and there’s demand," Doust notes—the sector is clearly in decline.
"We recognise that a future‑focused strategy must lean heavily on digital," he says. 4Divinity was launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring titles to Southeast Asia. Doust recalls the early successes: "Atomic Heart performed strongly in China, and we replicated that with *Stalker 2*.
Those wins proved the model could work, but they were outliers." As a Nasdaq‑listed entity, GCL needed scalable growth, and Doust explains that meant shifting from a regional co‑publishing role to a global publishing platform. "We started signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release," he says. By the time he joined in late 2024, the company 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 period of rapid expansion. The emerging catalogue shares several common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15–20 hours, positioned at a mid‑tier price point. This wasn’t a pre‑planned formula but rather a natural convergence that aligns with what Doust calls “the squeezed middle” of the market—a segment also targeted by US‑based ProbablyMonsters. "Players today don’t have the time or appetite for 200‑hour live‑service games, and they’re not willing to spend $80 on a single‑player title unless it’s a blockbuster.
A $40‑$50 price tag for a well‑crafted experience hits the sweet spot," he explains. Developing such games is costly, regardless of geography.
"Typical budgets range from $5 million to $20 million, and you need to sell roughly a million copies just to break even," Doust notes, highlighting the difficulty of achieving visibility in an oversaturated market. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its focus on new intellectual property. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new IP, both in China and the West.
Larger publishers shy away from betting on unproven franchises, especially given the risk‑averse climate of AAA development," he says. The rising development costs have turned AAA into a franchise‑centric business, leaving room for smaller studios to innovate. The turning point for 4Divinity, according to Doust, was the handling of *Black Myth: Wukong*.
GCL managed 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 success of *Wukong* illuminated a broader opportunity: after China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home and began creating console‑ready titles. Doust estimates the game’s development cost at around 300 million yuan (approximately $44.6 million) and notes that it has sold 30 million copies, delivering a substantial profit margin.
Lower production costs in China, combined with price‑sensitive gamers, shape 4Divinity’s regional strategy. Doust believes there is a “massive drought of supply” for affordable, high‑quality single‑player games in the West, and the publisher aims to fill that gap by pairing Western demand with Chinese supply. His overarching thesis is to find universal themes—loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge—that resonate across cultures and market the same game with tailored messaging for each region.
He admits few have executed this cross‑cultural approach effectively. Doust describes a “do‑nothing” model where the publisher focuses marketing efforts primarily in China, allowing a natural ripple effect to the West, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split. *Wukong* exemplified this, selling 20 million units in China and roughly three to four million elsewhere. The goal for 4Divinity is to shift that balance toward a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase overall unit sales and potentially place a title among the best‑selling games of all time relative to its development budget.
To illustrate the two‑way flow, Doust cites the studio’s first non‑Chinese title, *Guns Of Eschaton*, developed by Cyprus‑based Eschatology Entertainment. After announcing the game, 4Divinity immediately showcased it at Bilibili World in Shanghai—a move rare for Western publishers at such an early stage.
The early exposure propelled China to become the second‑largest wishlist market for the game, behind the United States, confirming the viability of the east‑to‑west pipeline. The colossal Gamescom presence mirrors this strategy.
By debuting its games in Cologne shortly after a ChinaJoy showcase, 4Divinity avoids the traditional lag where a title gains traction in China first and then scrambles to catch up in the West. Instead, the publisher launches simultaneously in both markets, creating synchronized buzz. Finally, Gamescom serves as 4Divinity’s Western coming‑out party. While the company does run individual game campaigns, the trade show offers a single platform to amplify its entire portfolio and brand awareness in one decisive push.
"If this is a 4Divinity portfolio play, why not go big?" Doust concludes, underscoring the ambition behind the multi‑million‑dollar investment.