At Gamescom 2026, some exhibitors’ joy at a successful week at the show turned into pure terror. Several development studios and publishers reported having their booths robbed overnight and valuable demo hardware stolen. Particularly painful: small independent teams and publishers in the commercial and indie sectors have been disproportionately affected, for whom the losses are not only painful financially but also mean their appearances at the show are ended prematurely.
Those affected include indie developer Ryan Laley, who wanted to showcase his asymmetrical survival horror game Mimic at the show. In a touching video, the perpetrator left behind the charging cable but took away all the laptops. For Riley, the theft meant a premature end to his planned demo, as the loss of a device represents an extremely serious financial hit for an independent developer.
Riley was by no means the only victim of the nightly series of burglaries. The well-known publisher iam8bit also announced that two laptops in its exhibition hall 4.1 were stolen, with unreleased test versions of “Petal Runner” and “Escape Academy 2” installed on them. The same thing happened to Tessera Studios in the independent area of Building 10.2: the criminals broke open the locked cabinet and stole two laptops and a Steam Deck. In addition to trade show demonstrations, the devices also contain confidential company information.
The incident has thrown the spotlight on security precautions at Koelnmesse. Many exhibitors said they had no idea that serious thefts on this scale could still occur despite security services. Gamescom organizers have now issued an official statement expressing regret and confirming that the incident has been reported to the police and that an investigation is ongoing. In times of need, the industry’s strong solidarity is at least evident.
In addition to the help provided by the community, developers such as CD Projekt Red also stepped in and voluntarily provided replacement hardware from their own inventory to affected indies to mitigate losses, at least for the remaining days of the show.
