Walking through Gamescom, the massive, eye‑catching booths are usually attached to household names—Capcom, Xbox, Sega, EA, Ubisoft, and the like. This year, however, a sizable portion of Halls 6 and 7 will be dominated by a company most visitors probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. "It’s enormous by any standard," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint.
The firm will feature six titles in the closed‑door B2B area, five of those in dedicated trailer showcases, and four on the public show floor across two separate stands. The larger of the two occupies roughly 800 square metres.
Doust adds that the company is not just expanding its space but also the spectacle: "We’re working with one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and haven’t held back on any expense." One of the most striking displays will be for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a Hollywood‑hill landscape that, in the game’s alternate timeline, has been renamed Neo Yokohama Hills 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 into to try the game. It’s all about creating an immersive, hands‑on experience," Doust explains.
When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give a precise number, calling it "crass" to do so, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars. "The scale of our footprint alone shows we’re committing resources at that level. It reflects how seriously we are taking the Western market—something not all Chinese‑based publishers are prepared to do." The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity lies in its corporate lineage.
The publisher is part of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns a jewellery business that mimics diamonds. GCL originally grew out of a physical‑distribution operation called Epicsoft, a business that has been around for nearly two decades.
While physical distribution remains a component of the group, Doust acknowledges that the market is shrinking, especially after recent announcements from Sony about the future of disc production. "We will continue to produce discs as long as Sony allows it, but we recognise the trend is downward and we need a stronger digital focus," he says.
Enter 4Divinity. Launched in 2022, the company began as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring titles to Southeast Asia.
Doust points out that finding a Western game that resonates in China is a tall order. The firm succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed strongly in the Chinese market, and later with *Stalker 2*. However, those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable growth engine.
As a Nasdaq‑listed entity, GCL needed a more scalable model. "From a growth perspective, we had to become a global publisher," Doust says. The strategy shifted to signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the company had already secured a handful of titles, including smaller indie projects and the ambitious *Showa American Story*.
Since then, the portfolio has expanded to eight games slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase. All of the announced 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 a similar approach taken by US‑based ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this segment captures current player sentiment: "People don’t have time for 200‑hour live‑service games, and $80 AAA titles are reserved for a few blockbuster franchises.
A $40‑$50 single‑player experience hits a sweet spot." Developing such games is costly, ranging from $5 million to $20 million per title, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. Doust notes that to break even, a game must sell roughly a million copies—a daunting target given the challenges of discoverability in today’s crowded marketplace.
4Divinity also differentiates itself by championing brand‑new IPs. "Everything you’ll see at Gamescom from us is new IP, both in China and the West," Doust says.
Larger publishers are increasingly risk‑averse, focusing on established franchises rather than betting on fresh concepts. This hesitancy is especially pronounced in the AAA space, where development costs have ballooned and the industry has become a franchise‑driven business.
The turning point for 4Divinity, according to Doust, was the success of *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL handled the game’s global physical PS5 distribution and acted as the publisher in Taiwan.
Because the developer, Game Science, is a Chinese studio, navigating the Western distribution network was challenging, and 4Divinity leveraged its Singapore base to bridge that gap. *Wukong* illustrated the untapped potential of Chinese developers now able to publish on consoles after the 2016 ban was lifted.
Many Chinese studios that had been working abroad returned home, forming new console and PC teams. Doust explains that development costs in China are considerably lower—*Wukong* reportedly cost about 300 million yuan (approximately $44.6 million) to produce, yet it sold 30 million copies, delivering a substantial profit margin. Chinese gamers are also highly price‑sensitive, which influences 4Divinity’s pricing strategy. By offering high‑quality, moderately priced single‑player games, the publisher aims to satisfy Western demand for fresh experiences without the prohibitive cost of AAA production.
Doust describes his mission as connecting Western appetite for "new experiences that don’t cost the earth" with the supply side that Chinese developers can provide more economically. He adds a cultural dimension to the strategy: "When I started working with Jacky Choo, the GCL chairman, I asked whether we could find common themes between East and West. It turned out to be easier than expected—universal ideas like loyalty, trust, defiance, and revenge resonate everywhere. We market the same game with different messaging tailored to each region.
No one has done this effectively at scale, in my view." Even without a concerted cross‑border push, games tend to flow between markets, but 4Divinity wants to accelerate that process. Doust calls the traditional approach a "do‑nothing" business: you market in China, get a ripple effect in the West, and end up with an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed that pattern, selling 20 million units in China and about three to four million abroad. The goal now is to shift the ratio toward a more balanced 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase overall sales volume.
Doust speculates that if *Wukong* had benefited from a more aggressive dual‑market strategy, it might have become the best‑selling game of all time relative to its development budget. To illustrate the two‑way flow, Doust cites the only non‑Chinese title in the current portfolio: *Guns Of Eschaton*, developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee.
The marketing campaign for that game began in China, with an early showcase at Bilibili World in Shanghai—an event no Western publisher typically uses at such an early stage. The move generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wish‑list market for the title after the United States. The massive Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market philosophy. The games will debut in Cologne shortly after a showcase at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, allowing 4Divinity to strike both markets simultaneously rather than waiting for a Chinese hit to trickle westward.
Doust emphasizes that Gamescom serves as the Western "coming‑out party" for the publisher. While they continue to run individual game campaigns, the trade show offers a platform to consolidate all their announcements into one high‑impact event. "We haven’t done much in the West yet, so this is our chance to make some noise," he says. In summary, 4Divinity’s multimillion‑dollar Gamescom investment reflects a broader ambition: to become a bridge between Chinese developers and Western gamers, focusing on mid‑tier, single‑player experiences that fill a gap left by risk‑averse AAA studios.
By leveraging cost‑effective development, universal storytelling themes, and coordinated marketing across both continents, the company hopes to reshape the global publishing landscape and prove that new IP can thrive on both sides of the Silk Road.