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 will be dominated by a company many attendees may not recognize: 4Divinity.
"It’s massive by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm will present six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will also feature in the associated trailer showcases, and four will appear on the public showfloor across two separate stands.
The larger of those stands occupies roughly 800 square metres. But the size is only part of the story; the company is also pulling out all the stops on production value. "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," Doust adds.
One of the most striking installations will be for the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a Hollywood‑hillscape that, in the game’s alternate timeline, has been renamed Neo‑Yokohama Hills after Japan takes control of the United States.
"We built a seven‑metre‑tall replica of the Golden Gate Bridge, draped with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into to try the game. It’s meant to be an immersive, experiential space," Doust explains. When he says no expense has been spared, he means it. "I can’t disclose exact numbers—that would be crass—but we’re talking millions of dollars of investment," he says.
"The sheer scale of our booth makes it clear we’re serious about cracking the Western market, something not every Chinese‑owned publisher is willing or able to do." So why might you not have heard of a company capable of such a spend? 4Divinity is one of several subsidiaries under Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery line. GCL’s origins lie in physical game distribution through a company called Epicsoft, a business that has been operating for nearly two decades.
That model is under pressure today, especially after recent announcements from Sony regarding disc production. "Physical distribution remains a significant part of our group’s revenue, and we’ll continue it as long as Sony supports disc manufacturing," Doust notes.
"But we recognize the market is shrinking, so we needed a digital‑focused growth engine." Enter 4Divinity. Launched in 2022, the unit was initially created as a co‑publisher to help Western developers bring their titles to Southeast Asia.
Doust admits that finding a Western game that resonates strongly in China is a tall order. "We succeeded with *Atomic Heart*—China turned out to be a huge market for that title—and then repeated the formula with *Stalker 2*. But those were outliers," he says.
For a Nasdaq‑listed group like GCL, occasional outliers aren’t enough. "From a growth perspective we needed a truly global publishing model," Doust says.
The company therefore began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. This effort started before Doust arrived in late 2024; at that point the roster already included a handful of 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 focus on the “squeezed middle” of the market mirrors a strategy pursued by US‑based ProbablyMonsters and reflects what Doust believes gamers currently crave. "People don’t want to invest 200 hours into a live‑service game," he explains.
"The $80‑plus AAA titles are reserved for a few blockbuster franchises. Most players are happy to spend $40‑50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure." Developing such games is costly, regardless of geography. "Typical budgets run between $5 million and $20 million," Doust says.
"To break even you need to sell roughly a million copies, which is a tall order given today’s discoverability challenges." 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on brand‑new intellectual property. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is a fresh IP," Doust says. "Even in China, these are new games, and in the West they’re completely unknown.
Larger publishers shy away from betting on multiple new IPs because development costs have risen dramatically. AAA has become franchise‑centric and risk‑averse, leaving space for smaller, innovative studios." 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 the Taiwanese publisher. Because the developer, Game Science, is Chinese, it lacked the infrastructure to handle global logistics, giving 4Divinity a strategic foothold.
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 formed console‑focused studios.
*Wukong* was among the first to break out, and more are following. With two offices in China, GCL now has direct access to a pipeline of talent producing high‑quality games at a fraction of Western development costs. Financially, *Wukong* illustrates the disparity. A Chinese tax filing suggests the title cost just over 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to develop, yet it sold 30 million copies, delivering a massive profit margin.
"Development is far cheaper in China, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive," Doust observes. This dynamic shaped 4Divinity’s regional strategy and underpins its belief that, while major publishers have retreated from mid‑budget single‑player titles for financial reasons, player demand for such experiences remains strong—a demand that currently faces a supply drought. Doust’s mission is to bridge Western appetite for affordable, narrative‑driven games with the production capacity of Chinese studios. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, the GCL chairman, I asked: can we find universal themes that resonate both east and west?
Loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge—these are universal. We market the same asset with different cultural lenses to appeal to each region," he explains. He believes few have executed this cross‑cultural marketing effectively.
Even without a concerted effort, games tend to cross borders, but 4Divinity wants to make the process intentional. Doust describes the company’s “do‑nothing” model: they market a game primarily in China, which creates a ripple effect abroad, typically yielding an 80/20 sales split favoring China. *Wukong* sold roughly 20 million copies in China and 3–4 million elsewhere, fitting that pattern.
The goal now is to shift that balance toward a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase overall unit sales. "If we could replicate *Wukong*’s success with a more balanced distribution, we might be looking at one of the best‑selling games ever, especially given the modest development budget," Doust muses.
The strategy is bidirectional—east‑to‑west and west‑to‑east—akin to a modern Silk Road. While most of 4Divinity’s catalog is Chinese‑originated, the company does have at least one non‑Chinese title: *Guns Of Eschaton*, created by Eschatology Entertainment, a newly formed studio in Cyprus founded by a former Wargaming employee. The marketing push for that game began in China, at Bilibili World, a massive anime and pop‑culture convention in Shanghai.
Doust notes that no Western publisher has ever launched a campaign there so early in a game’s lifecycle. The early exposure generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wishlist market for the title, trailing only the United States. The colossal Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market approach.
4Divinity’s titles will hit the Cologne show shortly after debuting at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, ensuring simultaneous exposure in both regions. "Instead of waiting for a game to become a hit in China and then trying to catch up in the West, we launch them together," Doust says.
Beyond promoting individual games, Gamescom serves as 4Divinity’s western coming‑out party. "We could run separate campaigns for each title, and we do some of that, but Gamescom lets us consolidate everything into one high‑impact event. We haven’t done much in the West yet, so this is our chance to make some noise," Doust explains. The massive scale of the booth reflects that ambition.
"If this is a portfolio showcase to introduce our games and ourselves to Western audiences, why not go big?"