Gamescom Devs Report Laptops Stolen, Unreleased Game Builds at Risk

Gamescom stolen laptops are turning into a real headache for exhibitors at Koelnmesse in Cologne. At least three of them have now publicly reported equipment thefts during the show. The most alarming case belongs to publisher iam8bit. It says two of its stolen laptops held unfinished builds of Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School — builds that could now be at risk of leaking. Solo developer Ryan Laley and indie studio Tessera Studios have reported thefts too. Police reports are filed, and Gamescom says it’s investigating.

The Gamescom stolen laptops reports start with Ryan Laley

Ryan Laley made the trip from Essex, England, to show off his upcoming horror social-deduction game Mimic at Gamescom. Friday morning, August 28, he went to grab his laptop from the booth cupboard. It wasn’t there.

His booth sat inside the International Game Developers Association Lounge, part of Gamescom’s business area. It’s not a space open to the public — just industry, press, and other credentialed visitors. He’d understood the area to have 24/7 security and no access after hours. Turned out he wasn’t the only one who’d lost equipment overnight; a few conversations with nearby exhibitors confirmed that. Police reports got filed.

That’s a rough hit for a solo developer, financially and otherwise. Aftermath pulled the numbers: even the smallest booth in Gamescom’s business area runs nearly €3,000 by the event’s own price calculator. And that’s before travel, lodging, or equipment costs even enter the picture.

My #gamescom cut short. Our equipment was stolen last night from the booth.

Police reports have been filed.

At a loss for words to describe the feeling. Just defeated. Gonna do my best with what's left of the week.

But a huge blow financially and mentally pic.twitter.com/dKpp3Of6df

— Mimic | Ryan Laley (@RyanLaley) August 28, 2026

Stolen laptops contained unfinished game builds

The theft that matters most, though, is iam8bit’s. The publisher says two laptops disappeared overnight from its station in the business area. They were the same laptops it was using to demo Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School for media and content creators.

The stolen laptops contained unfinished builds that could potentially leak. Petal Runner comes from Nano Park Studios; Escape Academy 2 is Coin Crew Games’ project. iam8bit called the theft especially disappointing given how much work both teams put into getting their builds ready for the show. So far, neither game has been confirmed to have actually leaked.

Another studio lost two laptops and a Steam Deck

Not every theft happened on the same night, either. Tessera Studios found its own storage cabinet forced open earlier in the week — Wednesday, when the team arrived at its booth in the Indie Area. Two laptops and a Steam Deck, gone.

Those devices had the studio’s Gamescom demo for its upcoming game The Zibbo Show on them, plus personal, company, and other critical information. Tessera reported it to both event security and local police.

Gamescom responds as security questions grow

Gamescom has since acknowledged all of this, saying it’s aware of the stolen hardware and taking the cases seriously. Per VGC, organizers say uniformed security covers the venue generally. But exhibitors can book their own individual stand security on top of that, and they’re advised to insure their equipment against theft. Cases have been passed to police, investigations are underway, and Gamescom is calling these “individual cases” while insisting security remains a high priority.

Reaction to the Gamescom stolen laptops reports hasn’t exactly been sympathetic to the organizers, either. Their gear went missing from inside the venue’s own exhibition halls. Pointing them toward extra security and insurance advice afterward has struck plenty of developers and observers as a little tone-deaf.

It also comes a year after Gamescom’s security staffing faced a separate round of scrutiny. German broadcaster WDR reported in 2025 that customs officials inspected roughly 150 security workers at the event. They found indications of undeclared work or benefit fraud in about a third of those cases. Plenty of the workers, too, couldn’t even produce the required ID or guard registration numbers. Koelnmesse’s response to WDR at the time was that it runs spot checks in coordination with local authorities.

Support pours in for Ryan Laley

There’s at least one bright spot in all this. After Laley posted about what happened, the official Cyberpunk 2077 account — CD Projekt Red’s — offered to help him replace his gear. Developer and consultant Joe Hensen, known online as Indie Game Joe, ended up donating enough for him to actually do it. Laley says he’s sticking around Cologne for the rest of the show, even with his booth already packed up.

Gamescom 2026 wraps up August 30 at Koelnmesse in Cologne. The show opened with Opening Night Live and a record 1,700-plus exhibitors this year.