Walking 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 occupied by a company most attendees will not recognize: 4Divinity.
"It’s huge by any measure," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of which will appear in dedicated trailer showcases, and four will be displayed on the public floor across two separate stands. The larger of those stands covers roughly 800 square metres. Doust stresses that the scale is matched by the spectacle: "We’ve hired one of the best booth‑builders at Gamescom and spared no expense." One of the showcase areas, dedicated to the 1980s‑style RPG *Showa American Story*, features a full‑scale recreation of the Hollywood Hills – renamed Neo Yokohama Hills in the game’s alternate timeline where Japan governs the United States.
"We built a seven‑metre‑high Golden Gate Bridge draped with Japanese lanterns, and a diner you can walk into to start playing. It’s a fully immersive experience," 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 size of our footprint shows the level of money we’re putting behind this.
It signals how seriously we’re taking the Western market – something not all Chinese firms are willing or able to do." The reason many have never heard of 4Divinity is that it sits under the umbrella of Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, a conglomerate that also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery line. GCL’s core business originated nearly two decades ago with Epicsoft, a physical‑distribution company that still ships discs as long as Sony permits it.
Doust acknowledges that while disc distribution remains a revenue stream, it is a declining one, prompting the group to pivot toward digital‑focused operations. 4Divinity was launched 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 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 model for a Nasdaq‑listed entity like GCL. "From a growth perspective we needed a global publishing strategy," Doust says, and the company began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release.
By the time Doust joined in late 2024, 4Divinity had already secured a handful of titles, including 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, run 15–20 hours, and sit in the mid‑tier price range.
This focus was not pre‑planned but evolved into a clear strategy aimed at the “squeezed middle” of the market – a niche also being explored by U.S. publisher ProbablyMonsters.
Doust believes this segment captures current player sentiment: "People don’t have the time for 200‑hour live‑service games, and they’re not willing to spend $80 on a single‑player title. But a $40‑$50 price point for a well‑crafted experience is attractive." Developing games in this AA bracket typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is in China or the West. Doust points out that breaking even often requires selling around a million copies, a challenging target given today’s discoverability problems. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on brand‑new IP.
"Everything you’ll see at Gamescom is fresh IP, even in China, and absolutely new to the West," Doust says. Larger publishers shy away from betting on multiple new IPs because AAA development has become risk‑averse, focusing on established franchises.
This creates an opening for smaller firms willing to take creative risks. The turning point for 4Divinity, 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, leveraging its Singapore base to help the Chinese studio Game Science reach global markets. The success of *Wukong* highlighted the untapped potential of Chinese developers now able to publish on consoles after the 2016 ban was lifted.
Chinese development costs are considerably lower than Western equivalents. A tax filing suggests *Wukong* cost roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to produce, yet it sold 30 million copies, generating a massive profit. Doust notes that Chinese players are highly price‑sensitive, reinforcing the need for affordable, high‑quality titles.
His mission is to bridge Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with the supply of Chinese studios capable of delivering them. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what common themes link East and West? Loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge – those are universal.
We market the same asset with different cultural lenses to resonate in each region. No one has done this effectively yet." Doust describes the traditional “do‑nothing” model where a game is marketed only in China and then trickles westward, typically resulting in an 80/20 sales split (80 % China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed this pattern, selling 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million abroad. 4Divinity aims to shift that balance to a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase total unit sales and could, in theory, make a title one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its modest development budget.
The publisher is pursuing a two‑way Silk Road strategy: exporting Chinese games to the West and introducing Western titles to China. Its only non‑Chinese game 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 title began at Bilibili World in Shanghai – a move rarely seen from Western publishers – and quickly made China the second‑largest wishlist market after the United States. The massive Gamescom presence mirrors this cross‑border ambition.
4Divinity’s titles will appear in Cologne shortly after a showcase at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, allowing simultaneous exposure in both markets rather than a delayed, catch‑up approach. Doust emphasizes that Gamescom serves as the Western coming‑out party for the company: "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 a splash.
If we’re presenting our entire portfolio, why not go big?"