Walking 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 substantial portion of Halls 6 and 7 is dominated by a company most visitors probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm is showcasing six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will appear in the adjacent trailer showcases, and four will be displayed on the public floor across two separate stands.
The larger of those stands occupies roughly 800 square metres. 4Divinity isn’t just betting on size; it’s also pulling out all the stops on spectacle. "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and spared no expense," Doust adds. One of the highlighted experiences is the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*.
Its area features a recreated Hollywood Hills—rebranded as the Neo‑Yokohama Hills in the game’s alternate timeline where Japan rules the United States. "We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge draped with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into to try the game. It’s all about immersion," Doust explains.
When pressed about the cost, Doust refuses to give an exact number, calling it "crass," but confirms that the investment runs into the millions. "The sheer scale of our footprint shows we’re committing resources at that level. It signals how seriously we’re taking the Western market—something not every Chinese‑based publisher is prepared to do." The reason this name may be unfamiliar is that 4Divinity is just one entity within the Singapore‑based conglomerate GCL Global Holdings, which also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business. GCL’s core for nearly two decades has been physical game distribution through Epicsoft, a business now under pressure from Sony’s recent moves.
"Physical distribution remains a sizable part of the group, and we’ll continue as long as Sony produces discs," Doust says, "but we recognize it’s a declining segment, so we needed a stronger digital focus." Enter 4Divinity. Launched in 2022, it began as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia. Doust notes that finding a Western title that resonates in China is challenging.
The company 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 for a Nasdaq‑listed company. "From a growth standpoint we needed a truly global publishing model," Doust says. The pivot involved signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release.
By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the roster already included a few indie titles and the ambitious *Showa American Story*. Since then the portfolio has swelled to eight games slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid expansion phase.
All of the titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15‑20 hours, priced in the mid‑tier range. This wasn’t a pre‑planned formula but rather an emerging strategy aimed at the “squeezed middle” of the market—a niche also pursued by US‑based ProbablyMonsters.
"Players today don’t have time 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 point for a solid, self‑contained experience is far more appealing," Doust explains. Developing such games is costly, typically between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. Adding marketing, localisation, and distribution costs means a title often needs to sell around a million copies just to break even—a daunting target given today’s discoverability challenges.
4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its focus on brand‑new IP. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is fresh IP, both in China and the West. Larger publishers are reluctant to gamble on multiple new IPs because AAA development has become franchise‑driven and risk‑averse," Doust says.
The company hopes to fill the supply gap created by that conservatism. The real catalyst for the publisher’s global shift, according to Doust, was *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL handled the game’s physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as the publisher in Taiwan.
Because the developer, Game Science, is Chinese, it lacked the infrastructure to manage global logistics, so GCL stepped in from its Singapore hub. *Wukong* demonstrated the untapped potential of Chinese developers now able to create console‑ready games after the 2016 lifting of the console ban. Doust notes that many Chinese studios, having gained experience in the West, are returning home to build PC and console titles. The game reportedly cost around 300 million yuan (approximately $44.6 million) to develop and sold 30 million copies, delivering a huge profit margin.
"Development costs are far lower in China, and Chinese gamers are very price‑sensitive," Doust says. This economic reality shapes 4Divinity’s strategy: leverage inexpensive, high‑quality Chinese production to meet Western demand for affordable, narrative‑driven experiences. He believes the market suffers from a “massive drought of supply” for this segment. His mission is to bridge the gap between Western appetite for fresh, reasonably priced games and Chinese studios’ capacity to deliver them.
"When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked whether we could find common themes that resonate across cultures—loyalty, revenge, defiance. Those universal kernels let us market the same game with different messaging for each region," Doust explains. He claims few have executed this cross‑cultural localisation effectively. Doust describes the traditional approach as a “do‑nothing” model: market a game in China, let a ripple reach the West, and accept an 80/20 sales split (80 % China, 20 % elsewhere).
*Wukong* followed that pattern, selling 20 million copies in China and roughly three to four million abroad. 4Divinity aims to shift the ratio toward a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase overall unit sales and could potentially produce one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its development budget.
The publisher is pursuing this two‑way flow—East to West and West to East—like a modern Silk Road. Its only non‑Chinese title at present is *Guns Of Eschaton*, developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee. The marketing push 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 wishlist market after the United States. Thus, the massive Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market strategy.
4Divinity’s titles will appear in Cologne shortly after a ChinaJoy debut in Shanghai, allowing simultaneous exposure in both regions rather than a staggered rollout that would force the company to chase after Chinese success. Gamescom serves as the Western coming‑out party, consolidating multiple game campaigns into a single, high‑impact showcase. "If we’re using Gamescom to introduce our portfolio and ourselves to the West, why not go big?" Doust concludes.