Several Gamescom exhibitors say laptops were stolen from their booths

Multiple exhibitors at Gamescom have reported thefts of laptops and other equipment from their booths in Cologne, with one indie developer saying the loss has effectively ended his show early.

Indie developer Ryan Laley, showing his asymmetrical survival horror Mimic, posted an emotional video to X/Twitter on Friday, explaining that his booth had been broken into overnight.

“Our booth got raided last night – not just mine, others as well,” he said.

Laley said the thieves left chargers behind and took only the laptops, and that he’d reported the theft to Gamescom’s central management, its security team, and the police, though he doesn’t expect the equipment to turn up.

“As an indie solo dev, this shit’s expensive,” Laley said. “And hard to do all by yourself. And to have this happen is beyond frustrating. It’s heartbreaking.”

Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt Red responded to Laley’s message, writing: “We are very sorry this happened to you. We hope you know you’re not on your own with this. And while it won’t help right this second, we’ll check the Arasaka hardware archives and see if we can send a few things your way. No choom should have to start from zero.”

Laley wasn’t alone. Iam8bit also reports that two of its laptops were taken overnight from the same business area.

“Today at gamescom we arrived to our station in the business area hall to discover that our two laptops had been stolen over night, despite the presence of Koelnmesse security,” the company wrote.

“These were machines we were using to demo iam8bit Presents titles Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2 to media and content creators during the show. On top of obviously disrupting our very busy appointment schedule, this theft has potentially put unfinished builds of these games at risk of being leaked.”

The statement added: “This is hugely disappointing for us and our development teams at Nano Park Studios and Coin Crew Games who worked tirelessly to prepare for this show.”

Tessera Studios, developer of The Zibbo Show, said its booth in the Indie Area had been broken into earlier in the week, where robbers forced open a cabinet to steal two laptops and a Steam Deck containing personal and company data. The studio said it had also heard of thefts at the Games from Spain booth and “several more across the entire fair”.

In fact, several companies have now come forward about their experiences at Gamescom, including Ukiyo Studios, which said it had a PC stolen from its booth two years ago, but Gamescom “blocked us from [filing a police report], saying ‘it makes Gamescom and the city of Cologne look bad'”.

“We do 15+ events all around the world each year,” Ukiyo wrote. “Gamescom is the ONLY event we have a dedicated storage room where we pack up all our PCs and peripherals at the end of each day and keep it under lock and key. That’s how bad it is.”

Gamescom has now addressed the thefts, saying it’s “aware of stolen hardware” and understands “the frustration of affected exhibitors”. Its full statement is given below:

We are aware of stolen hardware and take these reports very seriously and understand the frustration of affected exhibitors.

Since many requests reached us, we would like to inform about general security regulations at the event:

Uniformed guards provide general security across the venue. Individual stand security can be booked separately, and exhibitors are advised to insure equipment against theft.

This is noted in the terms and conditions of participation and the technical guidelines.

All cases have been reported to us and to the police, and investigations are already underway.

We also want to ensure that the reported cases are individual cases, which we are very sorry to read.

Because security has one of the highest priorities to us as an event and to see that indie developers are affected makes us very sad. At an event of this size, however, there will always be individuals attempting to take advantage of the situation.

Our security measures are designed to minimise such risks as effectively as possible.