‘It’s heartbreaking’: Numerous Gamescom devs say their equipment was stolen

Numerous Gamescom exhibitors have reported overnight thefts of their equipment at the Cologne, Germany, event this week.

On Friday morning, developer Ryan Laley, who was exhibiting the asymmetrical online survival horror game Mimic, posted a video on X explaining that his laptops containing the game had been stolen overnight.

“Effectively, my Gamescom‘s over early as all our laptops have been stolen,” Laley said. “Our booth got raided last night – not just mine, others as well. All our laptops have been stolen.

“As an indie solo dev, this shit’s expensive, and hard to do all by yourself,” Laley explained in tears. “And to have this happen is beyond frustrating; it’s heartbreaking. So, yeah.”

He added: “We’ve reported it to central management, and their security team, and they’ve been reporting it to police. I don’t expect it to be found or returned. They’ve left the chargers, it’s just the actual laptop itself, along with other people’s – it’s not just mine, it’s the whole area, it’s been raided.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now, as I can’t really do my job. But we’ll post updates if I get any updates, but effectively Gamescom is over for me.”

Later that day, publisher iam8bit – which also runs Summer Game Fest Play Days – posted a message on its own X account, stating that the laptops it was using to show its games to press and other industry attendees had also been stolen.

“Today at Gamescom we arrived at our station in the business area hall to discover that our two laptops had been stolen overnight, despite the presence of Koelnmesse security,” it stated.

“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.

“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. We ask that anyone who may have information about what happened to please reach out to us.”

Laley then confirmed that he was at the same booth area as iam8bit, specifically Hall 4.1 in the business area.

Indie studio says its equipment was stolen from another Gamescom hall

Laley and iam8bit’s both were both located to the right at the entrance to the hall, next to the West Entrance of Koelnmesse.

One could theorize, then, that someone gained access to Koelnmesse’s Hall 4.1 from the West Entrance and stole equipment from the first area they found. However, other reports have also emerged of thefts from elsewhere in the Koelnmesse venue.

Tessera Studios, the developer of The Zibbo Show, posted a message on X explaining that they were also “robbed at Gamescom” earlier in the week, at their booth in the Indie Area in Hall 10.2.

“On Wednesday, we arrived at our booth in the Indie Area to find our cabinet forced open. Two laptops and a Steam Deck were gone,” the studio wrote. “The devices contained not only our Gamescom demo, but also personal, company, and critical information.”

Replying to followers on X, Tessera said it had also heard of “at least two” similar incidents at the Games from Spain booth, and “several more across the entire fair”.

The thefts are causing some to call into question the effectiveness of Gamescom security. As the world’s largest video game event – around 357,000 visitors attended the show last year – exhibitors from around the globe (1,568 last year) attend to show their upcoming games in separate public and business areas.

As such, many indie studios bring their own equipment with them – especially in the business and indie areas where the reported robberies took place – expecting it to be appropriately guarded overnight.

Replying to Ryan Laley’s post on X, Ukiyo Studios, an Australia/Japan-based games marketing agency, alleged: “Two years ago we had a PC stolen from our Gamescom booth, and when we tried filing a police report, a person from Gamescom blocked us from doing so, saying ‘it makes Gamescom and the city of Cologne look bad’.”

“We’ve had something stolen at Gamescom each year,” they added. “Always chalked it up as the ‘cost of doing a show in Germany’. With all these others now reporting their thefts, hopefully Gamescom does a better job with security, but not really holding my breath.”

Last year, German news broadcaster WDR reported claims from trade union Verdi that Gamescom was not sufficiently vetting its security personnel, with customs officials carrying out a large-scale inspection during Gamescom 2025 and finding that “many of the men and women employed as security at Gamescom were unable to produce official identification cards or guard identification numbers”.

Gamescom has now posted a statement about the thefts on X, saying it is “aware of stolen hardware” and that it understands “the frustration of affected exhibitors”.

“Since many requests reached us, we would like to inform about general security regulations at the event,” it stated.

“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 minimize such risks as effectively as possible.”