Walking through Gamescom, you 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 most visitors probably haven’t heard of: 4Divinity. "The scale is massive by any metric," says Philip Doust, director of 4Divinity’s UK arm, when describing the publisher’s Gamescom footprint.
The company will present six titles in the closed‑door B2B zone, five of those in the adjoining trailer showcases, and four games on the public floor across two separate stands. The larger of the two public stands occupies roughly 800 square metres. Doust stresses that the ambition goes beyond sheer size; the company has also hired one of the top booth construction firms at the fair, sparing no expense on design and production.
One of the most striking installations is for the 80s‑inspired RPG "Showa American Story." The set recreates a Hollywood‑Hills‑style landscape 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‑high Golden Gate Bridge adorned with Japanese lanterns, and a fully functional diner that visitors can walk into to try the game," Doust explains. The experience is deliberately immersive, aiming to let attendees feel the world rather than just see it. When pressed about the cost, Doust declines to give an exact figure, calling it "crass" to disclose specifics, but he confirms that the investment runs into the millions.
"The sheer footprint alone shows we’re committing resources at that level. It signals how seriously we’re taking the Western market—a commitment not all Chinese‑based firms share or understand." The reason this relatively unknown publisher can afford such a splash is that 4Divinity is part of a larger conglomerate, Singapore‑based GCL Global Holdings, which also owns a variety of other businesses, including an imitation‑diamond jewellery line.
GCL’s roots lie in physical game distribution through a company called Epicsoft, a business that has operated for almost two decades. While physical distribution remains a component of the group’s revenue—"as long as Sony continues to produce discs, we’ll keep it alive"—Doust acknowledges that the model is in decline and that the group must pivot toward digital‑first strategies. 4Divinity itself was launched in 2022 as a co‑publisher helping Western developers bring their titles to Southeast Asia.
Doust notes that finding a Western game that performs well in China is exceptionally difficult. The company succeeded with "Atomic Heart," which saw strong sales in China, and later with "Stalker 2," but those were outliers rather than a sustainable model.
"For a Nasdaq‑listed company like GCL, we needed a growth engine that operated on a global scale," Doust says. Consequently, 4Divinity began signing Chinese‑developed games for worldwide release. By the time Doust joined in late 2024, the slate already included a few indie projects and the ambitious "Showa American Story." Since then the portfolio has expanded to eight titles slated for release over the next two years, marking a rapid growth phase.
All of the games share common traits: they are primarily single‑player experiences, run about 15‑20 hours, and sit in the mid‑tier price band. This focus was not pre‑planned but emerged as a coherent strategy aimed at the "squeezed middle" of the market—a segment also being explored by U.S. studio ProbablyMonsters.
Doust believes this is what many gamers currently crave: "People don’t have the time or desire to invest 200 hours in a live‑service game. An $80 AAA title is reserved for a handful of franchises, but a $40‑$50 single‑player game feels like a worthwhile investment." Developing games in this AA bracket typically costs between $5 million and $20 million, whether in China or the West. Doust points out that a title must sell roughly a million copies just to break even, a challenging target given today’s discoverability issues. To mitigate risk, 4Divinity is also differentiating itself by showcasing only new IPs at Gamescom.
"Even in China, these are fresh concepts, and in the West they’re completely unknown," he says. Larger publishers are reluctant to back multiple new IPs because development costs have surged, pushing AAA studios toward franchise‑centric models. Only a few emerging Chinese developers are willing to take the gamble on brand‑new properties. The turning point for 4Divinity’s global ambitions, according to Doust, was the distribution of "Black Myth: Wukong." GCL handled the physical PS5 distribution worldwide and acted as the publisher in Taiwan, leveraging its Singapore base to bridge the gap for Game Science, a Chinese studio that lacks a global publishing network.
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 started console‑focused studios. Wukong, built for roughly 300 million yuan (about $44.6 million), sold 30 million copies, delivering a remarkable profit margin. Doust emphasizes that development costs in China remain lower than in the West, and Chinese gamers are highly price‑sensitive. This economic reality shapes 4Divinity’s approach: they aim to bring affordable, high‑quality experiences to Western audiences while capitalising on the lower production costs in China.
He argues that while major publishers have retreated from this niche due to financial risk, consumer appetite for these types of games has not vanished, creating a "massive drought of supply." His broader thesis is to connect Western demand for fresh, reasonably priced experiences with Chinese supply capabilities. "When I started working with Jacky Choo, GCL’s chairman, I asked: what common themes exist between East and West?
Themes like loyalty, trust, defiance, revenge—these are universal. We can market the same game with different cultural lenses while keeping the core assets identical," Doust explains. He believes no one has executed this cross‑cultural marketing strategy effectively yet. Even without a concerted effort, games tend to cross borders, but Doust describes the passive approach as the "do‑nothing" business: market primarily in China and let a small ripple reach the West, typically yielding an 80/20 sales split (80 % in China, 20 % elsewhere).
Wukong followed that pattern, selling 20 million units in China and about three to four million internationally. Doust’s goal is to shift that balance to a 60/40 split, which would dramatically increase total unit sales and could potentially make a title one of the best‑selling games of all time relative to its modest development budget. To illustrate the two‑way flow, Doust cites the only non‑Chinese title in the current portfolio: "Guns of Eschaton," developed by Eschatology Entertainment, a new studio based in Cyprus founded by a former Wargaming employee.
The marketing push for this game began in China, with an early showcase at Bilibili World in Shanghai—a move almost unheard of for a Western studio. The early exposure generated enough buzz that China became the second‑largest wish‑list market after the United States.
The massive Gamescom presence, therefore, mirrors this dual‑market strategy. 4Divinity plans to roll out its titles in Cologne just weeks after debuting them at ChinaJoy in Shanghai, ensuring simultaneous visibility in both regions rather than a staggered, catch‑up approach. While the company could run individual campaigns for each game, Gamescom offers a single, high‑impact platform to introduce the entire portfolio and the brand itself to Western audiences.
"If we’re using Gamescom as a portfolio launch, why not go big?" Doust concludes.