Walking the bustling corridors of 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 haven’t heard of: 4Divinity.
“It’s massive by any measure,” says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, when describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint. The firm is presenting six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of them featured in accompanying trailer showcases, and four games on the public show‑floor across two separate stands. The larger of those stands covers roughly 800 square metres.
Doust emphasizes that the scale is not limited to space; the company has also spared no expense on production value. “We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and left nothing out,” he explains.
One of the most striking displays belongs to the 1980s‑inspired RPG *Showa American Story*. The set recreates a stylised version 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‑tall Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into to try the game,” Doust notes. The goal is to make the experience as immersive as possible.
When pressed about the budget, Doust declines to give exact numbers, calling it “crass” to do so, but he confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars. “The sheer size of our footprint shows we’re committing resources at that level. It reflects how seriously we’re taking the Western market – something not all Chinese‑based companies are prepared to do.” The reason this publisher can afford such a splash is that 4Divinity is part of a larger conglomerate, Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, which also owns an imitation‑diamond jewellery business.
GCL’s origins lie in a physical‑distribution operation called Epicsoft, a business that has been running for almost two decades. While physical media remain a component of the group’s revenue – “as long as Sony keeps producing discs we’ll keep making them,” Doust says – the sector is clearly in decline, prompting the need for a digital‑focused growth engine. Enter 4Divinity.
Launched in 2022, the company initially acted as a co‑publisher for Western developers seeking entry into Southeast Asian markets. Doust points out that finding a Western title that resonates strongly in China is exceptionally challenging. The firm succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed well in the Chinese market, and later with *Stalker 2*.
However, those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable model. “We needed a strategy that could deliver consistent, global growth for a Nasdaq‑listed parent,” Doust explains.
The answer was to start signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the pipeline already included a few smaller indie projects and the ambitious *Showa American Story*.
Since then the portfolio has expanded to eight titles slated for launch over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase. All of the games share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences lasting 15–20 hours, positioned at a mid‑tier price point. This focus on the “squeezed middle” of the market mirrors strategies employed by other independents such as the US‑based ProbablyMonsters.
Doust believes this segment aligns with current player preferences. “People don’t want to invest 200 hours into a live‑service game, and $80‑plus AAA titles are few and far between.
A $40–$50 single‑player game hits a sweet spot.” Developing these titles is still a costly endeavour – budgets range from $5 million to $20 million – and breaking even typically requires selling around a million copies, a tall order in today’s crowded marketplace where discoverability is a major hurdle. 4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on new IP. Every title showcased at Gamescom is brand‑new, both in China and the West. Larger publishers tend to avoid betting on untested IPs, especially given the escalating costs of development that have pushed AAA studios toward franchise‑centric models.
“Unless you already own a franchise, it’s hard to get a seat at the table,” Doust says, noting that a few emerging Chinese studios are beginning to buck that trend. The catalyst for the company’s global pivot, according to Doust, was *Black Myth: Wukong*. GCL handled 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, a gap that 4Divinity filled from its Singapore base. *Wukong*’s triumph highlighted a broader opportunity.
Since China lifted its console ban in 2016, many Chinese developers who had been working abroad returned home and set up console‑focused studios. Doust notes that development costs in China are substantially lower than in the West, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive.
The game reportedly cost around ¥300 million (about $44.6 million) to develop and sold 30 million copies, delivering a massive profit margin. This cost advantage shapes 4Divinity’s strategy: source affordable, high‑quality games from Chinese creators and bring them to Western audiences hungry for fresh experiences that don’t break the bank. Doust’s thesis, formed while working with GCL chairman Jacky Choo, is to find universal themes – loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge – and market the same game with different cultural lenses to maximise appeal.
The company describes its traditional “do‑nothing” model as one where a game is marketed primarily in China, creating a ripple effect abroad that typically yields an 80/20 sales split (80 % China, 20 % elsewhere). *Wukong* followed that pattern, selling roughly 20 million copies in China and 3‑4 million overseas. Doust hopes to shift the ratio toward a 60/40 split through coordinated cross‑border marketing, which would dramatically increase unit sales and potentially create one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its development budget.
To illustrate the two‑way flow, Doust cites the studio’s sole non‑Chinese title, *Guns of Eschaton*, developed by a Cyprus‑based team founded by a former Wargaming employee. The first promotional push took place at Bilibili World in Shanghai, an early‑stage move rarely seen from Western publishers.
The campaign generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wish‑list market for the game after the United States. Thus, 4Divinity’s colossal Gamescom presence mirrors its broader strategy: launch titles in the West shortly after showcasing them at ChinaJoy, ensuring simultaneous exposure rather than a delayed, catch‑up approach. Gamescom serves as the Western debut party, allowing the company to consolidate multiple campaigns into a single, high‑impact event. As Doust puts it, “If we’re using Gamescom to introduce our portfolio to the West, why not go big?”