As this year’s Gamescom event unfolded, terrible news hit social spaces about equipment theft from various indie developers attending the showcase to demo their creations. As the reports grew, we heard about laptops, handheld devices, and even VR headsets being unceremoniously pilfered from the halls, at a time when they should have been under the watchful eye of security.
The situation darkened when it was suggested that these thefts occurred overnight, when only security staff should have been on site. The event’s organizers took to social media with a statement in the days that followed, but the tone missed the mark and wasn’t taken very well by the wider community.
They’re now back with another statement.
Next Year Will Be Interesting
These situations can wreak havoc on future expectations for shows like Gamescom. This is now the pinnacle of gaming expos, and there’s nothing bigger in the world, but with all the growth the show has seen, what seems like as basic a deliverable as security doesn’t appear to have grown in kind.
At the end of August, we heard multiple reports of hardware being stolen from indie booths at Gamescom, but it didn’t take long for further complaints to exacerbate the discourse.
Lapses in security, confusion about entry, half-assed bag checks, and more all came to light in the days that followed the original claims.
Gamescom’s team responded to the comments, but their statement wasn’t well received at all.
So much so that the team has now emerged with a statement to address the statement. It’s an apology for the apology, in a way.
They wrote:
Over the past few days, we have received a great deal of criticism for the way we communicated about the theft of hardware belonging to several indie developers. That criticism is justified. Our first response did not strike the right tone, and it did not show the people affected the empathy they deserved. We are sorry.
A theft like this is far more than a material loss. It can ruin an entire gamescom for the people it happens to, and it can destroy work that took months or years to build – work that, for a small studio, can be almost everything. To everyone affected: we understand what this has cost you, and we should have said so from the very first moment.
We have already begun talking with those affected – about the theft, about its consequences, and above all to listen.
We have also been moved by how this industry responded. Within hours, people offered help – unconditionally, and without being asked. That says a great deal about this community, and we are grateful for it. What it does not do is relieve us, as the organizers, of our own responsibility to work together with our exhibitors and partners to create the best possible environment for everyone. We are therefore committed to jointly reviewing and further improving security.
Here is what we are doing: Alongside our regular post-event review and our evaluation of exhibitor feedback, we will carry out a dedicated review of security for indie exhibitors. In the coming weeks, we will invite organizers of shared indie booths to a roundtable, so that we can develop concrete measures together.
We also urge every exhibitor who has experienced an incident to report it – to us and to the police – even if it happened some time ago. Only then can incidents be documented, possible connections between them investigated, and appropriate action taken.
Gamescom is made by the industry, for the industry. It lives on the passion of the people who build it, and that includes the many small studios who matter to us enormously. Our commitment has always been to keep making gamescom better – together with the community, not just when things go well. That is exactly what we will do here. Thank you to everyone who is helping us.
In the comments under the post, the gaming community was still critical of what the team had said. Many called out a persistent lack of accountability, and some questioned why refunds and compensation are yet to be discussed.
Others questioned why it took almost a week for the team to produce this second statement addressing the failure of the first one, when the backlash was instant.
Next year’s event will be the earliest that we see the delivery of any tangible improvements, but it’s likely indie developers won’t forget this slight against them any time soon. They’ll be headed to next year’s Gamescom event with theft at the front of their minds.
Are you shocked by Gamescom’s response to the thefts? Let us know your thoughts about the whole situation on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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