Strolling through Gamescom, you’ll quickly notice that the most eye‑catching booths belong to household names—Capcom, Xbox, Sega, EA, Ubisoft, and the like. Yet this year, a sizeable portion of Halls 6 and 7 is dominated 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, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint.
The company will present six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those in the adjoining trailer showcases, and four games on the public showfloor across two separate stands, the larger of which spans roughly 800 square metres. The ambition isn’t limited to size; Doust stresses that the visual spectacle is equally important. "We’ve hired one of the top booth constructors at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," he explains.
One of the featured experiences, the 80s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*, recreates a Hollywood‑Hills‑like landscape that the game re‑imagines as Neo‑Yokohama Hills, an alternate timeline where Japan governs the United States. "We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk through while they try the game. It’s all about immersion," Doust adds. 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 in investment. The sheer scale of our footprint makes that clear.
It shows how seriously we’re taking the Western market, something not every Chinese‑origin company is prepared to do." The reason this name may be unfamiliar is that 4Divinity sits under the umbrella of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a diversified group that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery line. GCL’s roots lie in physical game distribution through a company called Epicsoft, a business that has existed for nearly two decades. While physical media remain a component of GCL’s revenue—"as long as Sony continues to produce discs, we’ll keep the operation alive"—the market is clearly contracting.
Doust acknowledges the shift: "We recognise the decline and know we need a stronger digital focus." 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 exceptionally well in China, and we repeated that with *Stalker 2*. Those wins proved we could bridge the gap, but they were outliers rather than a sustainable growth engine." As a Nasdaq‑listed entity, GCL required a more scalable model. "From a growth perspective we needed a global publishing strategy," Doust says.
The company began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release, a process already underway before Doust joined in late 2024. By the time of the interview, the portfolio had expanded to eight titles slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase. The current slate shares common traits: 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. Doust believes this segment captures what many gamers want today: "Players don’t have time for 200‑hour live‑service games, and they’re not willing to spend $80 on a single‑player title. A $40‑$50 price point feels right for a well‑crafted experience." Developing a 15‑hour game typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. Doust notes the economics: "You need to sell about a million copies just to break even, which is a tall order in today’s crowded marketplace where discoverability is a major hurdle." 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on new intellectual property.
"Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new IP, both in China and the West," Doust explains. Larger publishers tend to avoid betting on untested IPs, especially given the soaring costs of AAA development, which has turned many studios into franchise‑centric operations. By contrast, 4Divinity is willing to gamble on fresh concepts, betting that lower development costs in China can offset the risk. The turning point for the publisher, according to Doust, was the handling of *Black Myth: Wukong*.
GCL managed the game’s physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as publisher in Taiwan. Because the developer, Game Science, is a Chinese studio, it lacked the infrastructure to handle global logistics, giving 4Divinity a unique entry point. Wukong’s triumph highlighted a broader opportunity.
After China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home and formed console‑focused studios. Doust says, "Black Myth was one of the first, but now there’s a growing pipeline of Chinese talent creating high‑quality games." Cost efficiencies are striking. A Chinese tax filing suggests Wukong’s budget exceeded 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million), yet the title sold roughly 30 million copies, delivering a massive profit margin. Doust points out that development costs in China remain significantly lower than in the West, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive.
This reality shapes 4Divinity’s strategy: provide Western audiences with affordable, high‑quality experiences while leveraging the lower production costs of Chinese studios. Doust’s broader mission is to align Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply of Chinese developers who can deliver them efficiently. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked, ‘What common themes can we find between East and West?’ The answer is simple—universal emotions like loyalty, defiance, and revenge.
We market the same game with different cultural lenses to resonate in each region. No one has done this effectively at scale, and we aim to change that." Even without an active marketing push, games tend to cross borders organically. Doust calls this the "do‑nothing" business model: the publisher focuses on Chinese marketing, which creates a ripple effect abroad, typically yielding an 80/20 split of sales (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). Wukong followed that pattern, selling 20 million copies in China and about three‑to‑four million internationally.
The ambition now is to shift that ratio to a more balanced 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase total unit sales. "If we could replicate Wukong’s success with a 60/40 split, we might be looking at one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its development budget," Doust muses. To illustrate the two‑way flow, Doust cites the only non‑Chinese title in the current lineup: *Guns Of Eschaton*, developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee.
The marketing launch began in China, with the first showcase at Bilibili World in Shanghai—a move rare for Western developers. The early buzz propelled China to become the second‑largest wishlist market for the game after the United States, confirming the viability of the east‑to‑west pipeline.
The massive Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market strategy. 4Divinity’s titles will hit Cologne shortly after a showing at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, allowing the publisher to generate simultaneous momentum in both regions rather than waiting for a Chinese hit to trickle westward. Doust emphasizes that Gamescom serves as a Western coming‑out party: "We could run individual campaigns for each game, but Gamescom lets us bundle everything into one high‑impact event.
Since we haven’t done much in the West yet, this is our chance to make some noise. If we’re presenting a portfolio, why not go big?"