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 is occupied by a company most visitors will not recognize: 4Divinity. "It's enormous by any standard," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity's UK arm, describing the publisher's Gamescom footprint.
The company is displaying six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will feature in the associated trailer showcases, and four games will be presented on the public floor across two separate stands, the larger of which covers 800 square metres. Doust emphasizes that the scale is matched by the spectacle. "We hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," he notes. One of the showcases, for the 80s‑inspired RPG "Showa American Story," includes a full‑scale recreation of the Hollywood Hills, re‑imagined as "Neo Yokohama Hills" in an alternate timeline where Japan governs the United States.
"We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge draped with Japanese lanterns, and a diner you can walk into to start playing. It’s all very experiential," Doust adds.
When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give an exact figure, calling it "crass" to disclose specifics, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars. "That level of spend shows how seriously we are taking the Western market – something not every Chinese‑based company is prepared to do," he explains. The reason this publisher can afford such an outlay is that 4Divinity is part of a larger conglomerate, Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, which also owns a jewellery business that mimics diamonds. GCL’s core business originated nearly two decades ago with Epicsoft, a physical‑distribution company that still handles disc production for Sony as long as the console manufacturer permits it.
Doust acknowledges that while disc distribution remains a revenue stream, it is a declining one, prompting the group to pivot toward digital‑focused operations. 4Divinity was launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia. Doust recounts that finding a Western title that resonates in China is difficult, but the publisher succeeded with "Atomic Heart," which performed strongly in the Chinese market, and later with "Stalker 2." Those successes were outliers, however, and GCL, a Nasdaq‑listed entity, needed a scalable growth engine.
"From a growth perspective we had to become a global publisher," Doust says, leading to a shift toward signing Chinese‑made 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 swelled to eight games slated for release over the next two years, marking a rapid expansion period. 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 was not pre‑planned but emerged as a coherent strategy aimed at the "squeezed middle" of the market – a segment also being targeted by U.S.
studio ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this is exactly what many gamers now desire: "People don’t have time for 200‑hour live‑service games. The $80 AAA titles are reserved for a few franchises, but there’s a willingness to spend $40‑$50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure." Developing such games is costly, typically between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West.
Doust points out that to break even a title must sell roughly a million copies, a challenging target in today’s crowded marketplace where discoverability is a major hurdle. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on new IP. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new," Doust says.
Even in China, the titles are fresh, and in the West they are completely unknown. Larger publishers are reluctant to gamble on multiple new IPs simultaneously, especially as AAA development has become risk‑averse and franchise‑driven. By contrast, 4Divinity is willing to back several untested concepts.
The turning point for the company, according to Doust, was the handling of "Black Myth: Wukong." GCL managed the physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as the publisher in Taiwan. Because the developer, Game Science, is Chinese, it lacked the infrastructure to handle global logistics, allowing 4Divinity to step in from its Singapore base. The success of "Wukong" highlighted 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 and PC titles. Doust notes that development costs in China are considerably lower – the game reportedly cost about 300 million yuan (roughly $44.6 million) to produce – yet it sold 30 million copies, delivering substantial profit.
Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive, which shaped 4Divinity’s regional strategy and suggested a model that could be replicated elsewhere. Doust argues that while major publishers have retreated from mid‑budget, single‑player projects due to financial risk, consumer appetite for such experiences remains strong, creating a "massive drought of supply." His mission is to bridge Western demand for affordable, high‑quality experiences with the output capacity of Chinese developers. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what common themes link East and West?
Loyalty, trust, revenge – those are universal. We can market the same game with different messaging that resonates in each market," Doust explains, claiming that few have executed this cross‑cultural approach effectively.
Doust describes the current distribution model as a "do‑nothing" business: the publisher focuses on marketing in China, which creates a ripple effect abroad, typically yielding an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). "Wukong" followed this pattern, selling 20 million copies in China and three‑four million outside.
He hopes to shift that ratio toward a 60/40 split through more aggressive cross‑border promotion, which could dramatically increase total sales. The company is also experimenting with reverse promotion. Its sole non‑Chinese title, "Guns Of Eschaton," developed by a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee, was first showcased at Bilibili World in Shanghai – an early‑stage move no Western publisher typically makes.
The campaign generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wishlist market after the United States. Thus, the massive Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market strategy. 4Divinity plans to launch its games in Cologne shortly after they debut at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, aiming to generate simultaneous momentum in both regions rather than playing catch‑up after a Chinese hit has already peaked.
Gamescom serves as the Western coming‑out party, allowing the publisher to consolidate multiple game launches into one high‑visibility event. "If we’re using Gamescom to introduce our portfolio to the West, why not go big?" Doust concludes.