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At least three exhibitors got robbed at Gamescom 2026 — laptops and handhelds with unfinished game builds stolen from locked cabinets The incident has got a solo indie developer in tears. Several developers and game publishers at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, Germany, have reported equipment theft at the exhibition. According to Video Games Chronicle (VGC), Mimic developer Ryan Laley, game publisher iam8bit, and Tessera Studios were all hit during the week. Laley reportedly lost all his laptops from his booth, while iam8bit said in its X post that it’s missing two laptops as well. Meanwhile, Tessera Studios had two laptops and a Steam Deck taken from its cabinet. Laley’s and iam8bit’s booths are located together in Hall 4.1, next to the west entrance gate, meaning they’re both easy targets for thieves looking for a quick score. However, Tessera Studios is in Hall 10.2, putting it quite far from the other two targets. The cost of the stolen equipment will certainly be a huge setback for these developers and publishers, especially for smaller indie creators. However, the bigger loss would be the data on the machines, which often includes unreleased builds of the games they’re demoing at the expo. While they may have backup copies of their work stored in some of the best external SSDs, the fact that a copy of the games they’re working on is out in the wild and could potentially be leaked would chill the blood of any developer and could be “heartbreaking” for the team working on it. “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,” iam8bit said in their X post. “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.” “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,” Tessera Studios posted on X. “The devices contained not only our Gamescom demo, but also personal, company, and critical information.” Gamescom organizers responded to the issues, saying that although they have arranged for uniformed guards to provide general security, individual booth security must be booked separately. They’ve also advised exhibitors to have insurance against theft, and said these warnings are noted in the terms and conditions for participants, as well as in the event’s technical guidelines. “All cases have been reported to us and to the police, and investigations are already underway,” the organizers’ statement read. They also said that security is one of their priorities at the event, but also added, “At an event of this size, however, there will always be individuals attempting to take advantage of the situation.” Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. - tntdyno who got robbed? you said what games might get leaked?Reply sucks that you got robbed, sorry to hear that but being worried about your leaked "rogue like platformer" that nobody ever even heard about or was ever going to play is nothing to lose sleep over lol. they were just hoping for something to be valuable on the equipment. - PEnns Reply 😊tntdyno said:who got robbed? you said what games might get leaked? sucks that you got robbed, sorry to hear that but being worried about your leaked "rogue like platformer" that nobody ever even heard about or was ever going to play is nothing to lose sleep over lol. they were just hoping for something to be valuable on the equipment. Some wise persons (P.T. Barnum and Oscar Wilde) once said (respectively): - There is no such thing as bad publicity. - The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about! - shadow.garret Second year this is happening, they also ask people not to report to police "because it'll look back for gamescon and city of Köln"Reply - Bigshrimp I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if other companies may be involved in the thefts. I have no proof of course, although it's not uncommon in a historical context.Reply
document fetched 2026-08-31 02:47 · canonical https://tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/at-least-three-exhibitors-got-robbed-at-gamescom-2026-laptops-and-handhelds-with-unfinished-game-builds-stolen-from-locked-cabinets