Dear #devs, #gamescom, @geoffkeighley, @asha_shar, @NintendoAmerica, @PlayStation and all the devs of the world. @gamescom did not have a “sad incident.” It had a predictable failure, then tried to make the victims own it. Overnight, booths were hit. Laptops, Steam Decks, demo machines gone. Solo and tiny teams lost hardware they stretched to buy, builds they spent years on, and personal/company data sitting on those drives. For at least one indie, the show was over the moment they walked in. This was not a random phone off a table. Cabinets were forced. Restricted halls with advertised security still got cleaned out. Then came the official line: we are “very sad.” Also, exhibitors can book extra stand security. Also, insure your gear. Also, at an event this size there will always be people who take advantage. Translation: the world’s largest games show sold the prestige of being there, then pointed at the fine print when the smallest exhibitors paid the price. That is the truth bigger companies keep dancing around. Gamescom needs indies for the story. “100s+ indie studios.” “Awesome Indies.” “Small teams, huge success.” Those headlines make the floor look alive. They make politicians and press believe the industry is still creative, not just a few mega booths and livestream ads. The second the cost of that story lands on a solo developer’s @Alienware and two years of work, the organizers remember the terms and conditions. AAA can absorb a stolen laptop. A publisher can replace a demo rig before lunch. A platform can write it off. A one person studio cannot. Travel, booth, hardware, time off a day job, demo builds, backups they hoped they would not need, that is often the entire runway. When the venue fails and the organizer shrugs, it is not “risk of doing business.” It is a transfer of risk downward, every year, until the people who can least afford it stop coming. Do not pretend this is new or mysterious. People already said similar thefts happened before. The response pattern is the same: condolences, police are informed, security is a priority, please read the guidelines. No automatic coverage for indie area overnight losses. No admission that “book your own guard” is a joke when the booth is 9 square meters and the developer is sleeping in a cheap hotel. No public commitment that next year the indie halls get real protected storage and monitored overnight coverage included, not sold as an add-on. Here is the part the big companies should feel in the gut. If you only post “thoughts with the affected teams” and go back to your meeting rooms, you are part of the machine. You benefit from the indie halo. You benefit from a show that looks diverse. You benefit when small studios eat the downside of a venue that is too big to care. So hit them with something they cannot ignore: Say out loud that Gamescom’s statement was inadequate. Offer hardware, travel money, legal help, or a replacement demo station to the studios that got hit, publicly, not as a quiet DM. Tell Koelnmesse and game e.V. that 2027 contracts for major booths are tied to included overnight security and loss coverage for the indie and business area small stands. Stop using “event of this scale” as a moral get out of jail card. Scale is their product. If scale makes small exhibitors unsafe, the product is broken. Indies are not content. They are not a hall decoration. They are people who bet their savings on a week in Cologne because this industry still pretends that showing up matters. When the biggest show in Europe cannot keep their machines in a locked cabinet, it is not a footnote. It is the business model speaking. Amplify the developers by name. Demand a written policy, not another sad tweet. If the platforms, publishers, and giant studios stay polite, this happens again. That is the truth. Act like it. And as a side note big shout out to @CDPROJEKTRED and other companies that offered to assist!