Walking 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 sizeable portion of Halls 6 and 7 is dominated by a company most attendees probably don’t recognize: 4Divinity. "It’s massive by any measure," 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 accompanying trailer showcases, and four games will be displayed on the public floor across two separate stands. The larger of those stands spans roughly 800 square metres.
Doust stresses that the scale is not limited to square footage; the visual spectacle is equally ambitious. "We’ve hired one of the top booth builders at Gamescom and left no stone unturned," he explains.
One of the highlighted experiences is the ‘80s‑style pop‑culture RPG *Showa American Story*. Its booth recreates a Hollywood‑Hills‑like landscape that the game re‑imagines as Neo‑Yokohama Hills, an alternate timeline where Japan rules the United States. "We built a seven‑metre‑high Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully stocked diner that visitors can walk into while they try the game," Doust adds, emphasizing the immersive, hands‑on approach.
When pressed about the cost, Doust refuses to give an exact number, calling it "crass" to do so, but confirms that the investment runs into the millions of dollars. "The sheer size of our presence tells you we’re committing resources at that level. It shows how seriously we’re taking the Western market—something not every Chinese‑origin company is prepared to do." The reason this publisher can afford such a splash is that 4Divinity is part of a larger Singapore‑based conglomerate, GCL Global Holdings, which also owns a jewellery‑making business that mimics diamonds.
GCL’s core business was built on physical game distribution through its long‑standing subsidiary Epicsoft, a company that has been shipping discs for nearly two decades. While physical distribution remains a revenue stream—"as long as Sony continues to produce discs, we’ll keep supporting it"—Doust acknowledges that the model is in decline and that the group needed a digital‑focused growth engine. Enter 4Divinity, launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring their titles to Southeast Asia. Doust notes that finding a Western game that resonates in China is a tall order.
The publisher succeeded with *Atomic Heart*, which performed strongly in the Chinese market, and then repeated the feat with *Stalker 2*. However, those successes were outliers rather than a sustainable growth path for a Nasdaq‑listed company like GCL. "From a growth perspective, we needed a truly global publishing model," Doust says.
Consequently, 4Divinity began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the company already had a handful of titles, including smaller indie projects and the ambitious *Showa American Story*. The portfolio has since expanded to eight games slated for release over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase. All of the announced titles share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences, roughly 15‑20 hours in length, and 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 targeted by U.S. publisher ProbablyMonsters. Doust believes this is exactly what many gamers want today: "People don’t have the time or desire to invest 200 hours in a live‑service game.
An $80 blockbuster is reserved for a few flagship titles, but there’s a willingness to spend $40‑$50 on a well‑crafted single‑player adventure." Developing games in this AA bracket typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, regardless of whether the studio is based in China or the West. Doust points out that to break even, a title must sell roughly a million copies—a challenging target given today’s discoverability hurdles.
4Divinity’s approach also diverges in its emphasis on new intellectual property. "Everything you’ll see from us at Gamescom is brand‑new IP," Doust says. Even within China, these are fresh concepts, and in the West they are completely unknown.
Larger publishers are increasingly risk‑averse, focusing on established franchises because development costs have ballooned. Only a few emerging Chinese studios are willing to gamble on original IPs. 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 the publisher in Taiwan. Because the developer, Game Science, is a Chinese company, it lacked the infrastructure to handle global logistics, giving 4Divinity a unique entry point.
*Wukong*’s triumph 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‑oriented studios. *Black Myth: Wukong* was among the first to break out, and more are following. Doust notes that development costs in China are considerably lower; a tax filing suggests *Wukong* cost around 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million) to produce, yet it sold 30 million copies, delivering a substantial profit margin.
Chinese gamers are also highly price‑sensitive, which shaped 4Divinity’s regional strategy. Doust argues that while major Western publishers have retreated from funding mid‑budget, narrative‑driven games for financial reasons, consumer appetite for such experiences remains strong. "There’s a massive drought of supply," he says, and 4Divinity aims to fill that gap by linking Western demand for affordable, high‑quality single‑player titles with Chinese developers who can deliver them at lower cost. His broader thesis, developed alongside GCL chairman Jacky Choo, is to discover thematic commonalities between East and West—universal ideas like loyalty, revenge, and defiance—and market the same game with different cultural lenses.
Doust believes few have executed this cross‑cultural positioning effectively. Even without proactive marketing, games tend to cross borders organically. Doust refers to this as the "do‑nothing" business model: the publisher focuses on Chinese marketing, and a ripple effect generates sales abroad, typically yielding an 80/20 split (80 % of sales in China, 20 % elsewhere).
*Wukong* followed that pattern, moving 20 million units in China and 3‑4 million internationally. The ambition now is to shift the ratio toward a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase total unit sales. Doust speculates that if *Wukong* had achieved such a balance, it might have become the best‑selling game of all time, given its modest development budget relative to the current record‑holder.
To achieve this, 4Divinity is pursuing a two‑way Silk Road strategy—promoting Chinese titles in the West and Western titles in China. Their 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, Shanghai’s massive anime and pop‑culture convention—an early‑stage move no Western publisher typically makes. The resulting buzz elevated China to the second‑largest wishlist market for the game, trailing only the United States.
The colossal Gamescom presence mirrors this dual‑market approach. By unveiling the titles in Cologne shortly after a showcase at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, 4Divinity aims to generate simultaneous momentum in both regions rather than waiting for Chinese success to trickle westward. Doust explains that Gamescom serves as the publisher’s western debut party, allowing them to bundle multiple campaigns into a single, high‑impact event.
"If we’re using Gamescom to introduce our portfolio and ourselves to the West, why not go big?" he concludes.