Gamescom: Dev offers $5,000 bounty for retrieval of stolen PCs

Two thieves have pinched a pair of PCs belonging to developer Larian at Gamescom. The PCs contained early versions of Divinity: Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin. Larian is offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who comes forward to help recover the PCs and find those responsible.

This is an unfortunate development. Larian will be greatly concerned about a possible leak of their unreleased titles. Hopefully the PCs will be returned swiftly so their theft doesn't cast a shadow over this year's event - check out our roundup of day one of Ga mescom 2012 here .

Larian's full statement (via Kotaku ) is below:

"Hey folks... this definitely isn't the way we wanted to kick off Gamescom!

Two PCs were stolen from Larian's booth in the business hall at Gamescom, containing early builds of Divinity: Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin.

Larian is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the culprit and return of the PCs. We're asking the game community to band together to track these criminals down and to get the games back!

The team is using backup PCs, so no issues there — and if you have an appointment with Larian, there's no change — but if you have any information about the culprits, head to Business Hall 4.2, Booth A-16 to let the team know. Oh, and you might as well stay for a demo."

Cue a sudden explosion of roguish bounty hunters and trenchoated PIs examining cigarette books for scrawled clues. Will someone find the goods before the end of Gamescom? Stealing a development PC is one way to get early access, but it's certainly not a recommended approach.