A number of exhibitors at Gamescom have reported thefts of laptops and different gear from their cubicles in Cologne, with one indie developer saying the loss has successfully ended his present early.
Indie developer Ryan Laley, exhibiting his asymmetrical survival horror Mimic, posted an emotional video to X/Twitter on Friday, explaining that his sales space had been damaged into in a single day.
“Our sales space received raided final evening – not simply mine, others as effectively,” he mentioned.
My #gamescom reduce brief. Our gear was stolen final evening from the sales space.
Police stories have been filed.
Perplexed to explain the sensation. Simply defeated. Gonna do my finest with what’s left of the week.
However an enormous blow financially and mentally pic.twitter.com/dKpp3Of6df
— Mimic | Ryan Laley (@RyanLaley) August 28, 2026
Laley mentioned the thieves left chargers behind and took solely the laptops, and that he’d reported the theft to Gamescom’s central administration, its safety group, and the police, although he would not count on the gear to show up.
“As an indie solo dev, this shit’s costly,” Laley mentioned. “And exhausting to do all by your self. And to have this occur is past irritating. It is heartbreaking.”
Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt Pink responded to Laley’s message, writing: “We’re very sorry this occurred to you. We hope you realize you are not by yourself with this. And whereas it will not assist proper this second, we’ll test the Arasaka {hardware} archives and see if we are able to ship a number of issues your approach. No choom ought to have to begin from zero.”
Laley wasn’t alone. Iam8bit additionally stories that two of its laptops had been taken in a single day from the identical enterprise space.
“At present at gamescom we arrived to our station within the enterprise space corridor to find that our two laptops had been stolen over evening, regardless of the presence of Koelnmesse safety,” the corporate wrote.
At present at gamescom we arrived to our station within the enterprise space corridor to find that our two laptops had been stolen over evening, regardless of the presence of Koelnmesse safety.
These had been machines we had been utilizing to demo iam8bit Presents titles Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2 to…
— iam8bit @ gamescom corridor 5.2 stand C051 (@iam8bit) August 28, 2026
“These had been machines we had been utilizing to demo iam8bit Presents titles Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2 to media and content material creators through the present. On high of clearly disrupting our very busy appointment schedule, this theft has probably put unfinished builds of those video games vulnerable to being leaked.”
The assertion added: “That is vastly disappointing for us and our growth groups at Nano Park Studios and Coin Crew Video games who labored tirelessly to arrange for this present.”
We had been robbed at Gamescom.
On Wednesday, we arrived at our sales space within the Indie Space to seek out our cupboard pressured open. Two laptops and a Steam Deck had been gone.
The units contained not solely our Gamescom demo, but in addition private, firm, and important data.
Right here’s our story pic.twitter.com/ZghaSx9RJB
— The Zibbo Present ➡️ Wishlist on Steam 💥 (@tesserastudios) August 28, 2026
Tessera Studios, developer of The Zibbo Present, mentioned its sales space within the Indie Space had been damaged into earlier within the week, the place robbers pressured open a cupboard to steal two laptops and a Steam Deck containing private and firm knowledge. The studio mentioned it had additionally heard of thefts on the Video games from Spain sales space and “a number of extra throughout your entire truthful”.
Actually, a number of corporations have now come ahead about their experiences at Gamescom, together with Ukiyo Studios, which mentioned it had a PC stolen from its sales space two years in the past, however Gamescom “blocked us from [filing a police report], saying ‘it makes Gamescom and the town of Cologne look unhealthy'”.
We do 15+ occasions all world wide annually.
Gamescom is the ONLY occasion now we have a devoted storage room the place we pack up all our PCs and peripherals on the finish of every day and maintain it beneath lock and key.
That’s how unhealthy it’s.
— Ukiyo Studios 🔜Gamescom 10.1 F063/ PAX WEST/ TGS/ (@ukiyostudiosau) August 28, 2026
“We do 15+ occasions all world wide annually,” Ukiyo wrote. “Gamescom is the ONLY occasion now we have a devoted storage room the place we pack up all our PCs and peripherals on the finish of every day and maintain it beneath lock and key. That’s how unhealthy it’s.”
Gamescom has now addressed the thefts, saying it is “conscious of stolen {hardware}” and understands “the frustration of affected exhibitors”. Its full assertion is given under:
We’re conscious of stolen {hardware} and take these stories very critically and perceive the frustration of affected exhibitors.
Since many requests reached us, we wish to inform about normal safety rules on the occasion:
Uniformed guards present normal safety throughout the venue. Particular person stand safety will be booked individually, and exhibitors are suggested to insure gear towards theft.
That is famous within the phrases and situations of participation and the technical tips.
All circumstances have been reported to us and to the police, and investigations are already underway.
We additionally need to be certain that the reported circumstances are particular person circumstances, which we’re very sorry to learn.
As a result of safety has one of many highest priorities to us as an occasion and to see that indie builders are affected makes us very unhappy. At an occasion of this dimension, nonetheless, there’ll all the time be people trying to make the most of the state of affairs.
Our safety measures are designed to minimise such dangers as successfully as doable.