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. This year, however, a sizable portion of Halls 6 and 7 is dominated by a company most visitors probably don’t recognize: 4Divinity.
"The scale is massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK operation, when describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm will present six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will appear in the adjoining 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 investing heavily in spectacle.
"We’ve hired one of the top booth‑construction firms at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," Doust adds. One of the featured experiences, the 80s‑style pop‑culture RPG *Showa American Story*, includes a full‑scale recreation of the Hollywood Hills—rebranded in the game’s alternate timeline as Neo Yokohama Hills, a world where Japan governs the United States. "We built a seven‑metre‑tall Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a diner you can actually walk into to start playing.
It’s a fully immersive set‑piece," Doust explains. When pressed about the cost, Doust is vague but unmistakably confident. "I can’t give exact numbers—it would be crass—but we’re talking millions of dollars. The sheer footprint alone shows the level of investment.
It signals how seriously we’re taking the Western market, something not every Chinese‑owned company understands or attempts." The reason many have never heard of a firm capable of such spending is that 4Divinity is just one arm of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also dabbles in imitation‑diamond jewellery. GCL’s core business began nearly two decades ago with Epicsoft, a physical‑distribution company that still ships discs as long as Sony permits it.
"Physical media remains a significant revenue stream for us, but we recognise it’s a declining one. If that were our only focus, we’d have to pivot to digital," Doust notes. Enter 4Divinity, launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring games to Southeast Asia.
"Finding a Western title that performs well in China is extremely difficult," Doust says. The company succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which sold strongly in China, and later with *Stalker 2*. However, those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable growth model for a Nasdaq‑listed group. "From a growth perspective we needed a truly global publishing strategy," Doust explains, prompting 4Divinity to start signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release.
Before Doust joined in late 2024, the team had already secured a handful of titles, including a few 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 titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15‑20 hours, priced in the mid‑tier range.
This focus wasn’t pre‑planned but emerged as a coherent strategy aimed at the “squeezed middle” of the market—a segment also pursued by US‑based ProbablyMonsters. "Players today don’t want to invest 200 hours in a live‑service game, nor can they justify an $80 premium title. A $40‑$50 single‑player adventure hits a sweet spot," Doust says.
Developing such games is costly, typically between $5 million and $20 million. "Whether you’re in China or the West, that’s a big gamble. You need to sell roughly a million copies just to break even, which is increasingly hard given discoverability challenges," he admits. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on brand‑new IP.
"Everything you’ll see at Gamescom from us is fresh IP—new to China and new to the West. Bigger publishers shy away from betting on multiple new IPs because AAA development has become franchise‑driven and risk‑averse," Doust observes.
The turning point for the publisher was the handling of *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL managed the game’s physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as publisher in Taiwan, leveraging its Singapore base to help the Chinese developer Game Science navigate international markets. The success of *Wukong* illuminated a broader opportunity: after China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese studios that had been working abroad returned home, creating a wave of console‑ready titles. *Wukong* reportedly cost around 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to develop and sold 30 million copies, delivering a sizable profit.
Doust points out that development costs in China are considerably lower and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive, shaping 4Divinity’s regional strategy. He argues that while many major publishers have retreated from this niche due to financial risk, consumer appetite for affordable, narrative‑driven games remains strong, creating a “massive drought of supply.” His mission is to bridge Western demand for affordable new experiences with the supply of Chinese developers. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked whether we could find thematic common ground between East and West.
Themes like loyalty, revenge, defiance resonate everywhere. We market the same asset with different cultural lenses," Doust explains, noting that few have executed this effectively. Even without an active marketing push, games tend to cross borders.
Doust calls this the “do‑nothing” model: the publisher focuses on Chinese marketing, which creates a ripple effect abroad, typically yielding an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed that pattern, selling 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million internationally. Doust hopes to shift that balance to a 60/40 split through more coordinated cross‑border campaigns, which could dramatically increase overall sales.
The company is also experimenting in the opposite direction. Its only non‑Chinese title at present, *Guns of Eschaton*—developed by Cyprus‑based Eschatology Entertainment—was first promoted at Bilibili World, a massive anime and pop‑culture expo in Shanghai. No Western publisher typically launches a game that early at a Chinese convention, yet the move generated enough buzz to make China the second‑largest wishlist market behind the United States.
The massive Gamescom presence is essentially a Western showcase of this dual‑market strategy. 4Divinity’s games will hit Cologne shortly after debuting at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, allowing the publisher to launch simultaneously in both regions rather than chasing after a Chinese hit that later tries to catch up in the West. Doust says Gamescom also serves as the company’s “coming‑out party” to Western audiences.
"We could run individual campaigns for each title, 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 an entire portfolio, why not go big?"