Gamescom Team Addresses Theft Reports From Show Floor

In the last day or two, multiple reports have cropped up across social media of equipment theft at Gamescom. In the most dire of situations, solo developers have had their computers and accessories stolen, presumably under the not-so-watchful eye of event security.

As these reports started gaining traction, other complaints surfaced, almost all of them concerning complacency and what could be dubbed incompetence from the security workers guarding and marshalling folks at the Koelnmesse this week.

Now, the Gamescom event team has issued a lengthy statement about these crimes, but it’s not sitting well with attendees.

‘Security Has One of the Highest Priorities To Us’

This week, damning reports have emerged regarding events at the Koelnmesse in Cologne as Gamescom unravelled. Multiple developers have reported having their equipment stolen from various locations at the event venue, leaving them devastated and facing critical security concerns, with all kinds of information related to builds and operations being whisked away.

In response, the Gamescom team posted a lengthy statement on social media, which itself has been met with backlash:

We are aware of stolen hardware and take these reports very seriously and understand the frustration of affected exhibitors.

Since many requests reached us, we would like to inform about general security regulations at the event:

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.

Many users reading this statement have responded critically. One wrote, ‘You charge so much, and you make massive profits, but other devs came in to help them, while you did nothing.’

Another simply said, ‘Absolutely unacceptable response.’

One user took it upon themselves to suggest better practices:

Investigate what was security doing during the night and how they work why they allowed this to happened. Someone needs to be inside the building constantly patrolling. This can’t happen again.

From my perspective, security was lacking in professionalism all week. I frequently saw people without identification or the right credentials – even teenagers quite obviously sneaking around security – making their way into the business-only areas at Gamescom. People were walking around unchecked; many security operatives seemed unbothered, and many of them didn’t have much of a clue about what was going on.

Every morning when we arrived at the venue, it seemed as though the security guards working the doors had a different idea of what we were and weren’t allowed to do, mostly being unsure of who could access the event, from when and where.

It’s not a blanket rule, though. I interacted with some helpful and genuinely capable event staff. At one gate, a security officer actively pursued a young woman who’d walked into a business area without presenting her pass, then apologized when they realized it was there, but they’d just not spotted it in time.

Have you had any negative experiences at Gamescom this year? Let us know what’s happening on the Insider Gaming Discord server.

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