Why an Unfamiliar Publisher Is Investing Millions in Its Gamescom Showcase

Strolling 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 dominated by a company most visitors will not recognize: 4Divinity.

"By any measure, it’s gigantic," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, 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 associated 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. Doust emphasizes that the scale is matched by the spectacle: "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and left no stone unturned." One of the showcases, for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*, features a re‑imagined Hollywood Hills—renamed Neo Yokohama Hills in the game’s alternate timeline where Japan governs the United States.

"We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge draped with Japanese lanterns, and a fully recreated diner that visitors can walk through to try the game. It’s all about creating an immersive experience," Doust explains. When pressed about the cost, Doust refuses to give an exact number, calling it "crass," but he confirms that the investment runs into the millions.

"The sheer size of our footprint shows we’re willing to spend at that level. It signals how seriously we’re taking the Western market—a commitment not all Chinese firms share or even understand." The reason this relatively unknown publisher can afford such a lavish presence lies in its corporate parent, Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings.

GCL, which also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business, originally built its empire on a physical‑distribution operation called Epicsoft—a business that has been running for almost two decades. While physical media remain a part of the group’s revenue, Doust acknowledges the sector is shrinking, especially after recent Sony announcements. "We’ll keep producing discs as long as Sony permits and there’s demand, but we know the model is on the decline, so we needed a digital‑focused growth engine." Enter 4Divinity, founded in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia. Doust notes that finding a Western title that resonates in China is exceptionally difficult.

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 path.

"As a Nasdaq‑listed company, GCL needed a strategy that could deliver global scale," Doust says. The answer was to start signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. The shift began before Doust joined in late 2024; the firm had already secured a handful of titles, including a few indie projects 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 focus was not pre‑planned but emerged as a coherent strategy aimed at the “squeezed middle” of the market—a segment also being explored by US‑based ProbablyMonsters.

Doust believes this segment captures current player sentiment: "People don’t want to invest 200 hours in a live‑service game, and they’re not willing to spend $80 on a blockbuster. But a $40‑$50 single‑player adventure is an attractive proposition." Developing games in this bracket typically costs between $5 million and $20 million. Whether produced in China or the West, that represents a sizable gamble.

"To break even you need to sell roughly a million copies, which is increasingly difficult given discoverability challenges," Doust warns. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on new IP. "Everything you’ll see at Gamescom is brand‑new, especially for Western audiences," he says. Larger publishers are reluctant to gamble on untested IPs, preferring to lean on established franchises.

The rising development costs have made AAA studios risk‑averse, turning the industry into a franchise‑driven business, with only a few emerging Chinese studios daring to launch fresh concepts. The turning point for 4Divinity’s global ambition 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 manage global logistics, creating an opportunity for 4Divinity. The success of *Wukong* highlighted a broader trend: since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home, forming new console and PC studios. Doust notes that *Wukong* was among the first to break out, and more are following.

Financially, *Wukong* was produced for roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) and sold 30 million copies, generating a massive profit margin. Development costs in China remain lower than in the West, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive.

This environment shaped 4Divinity’s regional strategy: leverage cost‑effective Chinese development while offering affordable products to Western players, filling a noticeable gap in the market. Doust’s overarching mission is to bridge Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply of Chinese studios capable of delivering them. He describes his thesis, formed with GCL chairman Jacky Choo, as finding universal themes—loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge—that resonate across cultures. By using the same marketing assets but tailoring the narrative lens to each region, 4Divinity aims to achieve a level of cross‑cultural marketing that, in his view, no one has executed successfully yet.

Even without an aggressive push, games tend to cross borders organically. Doust refers to this as the "do‑nothing" model: marketing primarily in China, with a ripple effect abroad, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split favoring China.

*Wukong* exemplified this, selling 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million elsewhere. The goal now is to shift that balance toward a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase total unit sales and could potentially make a title one of the best‑selling games ever, relative to its development budget. To test this two‑way flow, 4Divinity recently added a non‑Chinese title to its roster: *Guns of Eschaton*, developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a Cyprus‑based studio founded by a former Wargaming employee. The first promotional move was to showcase the game at Bilibili World, Shanghai’s massive anime and pop‑culture expo—an early‑stage marketing tactic rarely employed by Western publishers.

The result was a surge of interest that positioned China as the second‑largest wishlist market for the game, trailing only the United States. The massive Gamescom presence is essentially a Western launchpad for the same strategy.

By aligning the Cologne debut with a recent ChinaJoy showcase in Shanghai, 4Divinity aims to avoid the typical lag where a game gains traction in China first and then scrambles to catch up in the West. Instead, they are unveiling titles simultaneously in both territories. Beyond promoting individual games, Gamescom serves as a grand introduction of 4Divinity itself to the Western industry.

While the company runs targeted campaigns for each title, the trade show offers a consolidated platform to make a louder statement. "If we’re using Gamescom to present our entire portfolio and introduce ourselves to the West, why not go all‑in?" Doust concludes.