dbrand cancels its Steam Machine Companion Cube after Valve’s legal threats
Valve forces dbrand to pull its unlicensed Companion Cube Steam Machine case cover
When Valve unveiled its Steam Machine, fans quickly called it the Gabecube, and dbrand immediately thought of Portal’s Companion Cube. For seven months, dbrand developed this idea into a product, a full cover for Valve’s Steam Machine that mimicked the iconic object. All this was done without Valve’s permission.
After dbrand unveiled its $99 Steam Machine case, Valve took action. Valve’s legal team reached out, stating that the Companion Cube is Valve’s intellectual property and that dbrand doesn’t have a license. As a result, dbrand has taken the product down and removed it from sale. Everyone who pre-ordered the case will be refunded. dbrand asked Valve if they could “keep the project alive: properly licensed”, and Valve said no.
To make a long story short, dbrand has wasted 7 months of development time on a product that they were not legally allowed to make. dbrand says that Valve has been “direct, fair, and respectful throughout” and that Valve’s actions are “entirely within their rights”. To make a long story short, the saying “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” isn’t a viable product strategy.
dbrand’s second most popular product
dbrand claims that its Companion Cube is its second-fastest-selling product in the company’s history. The only product to beat their Companion Cube is their Switch 2 “Killswitch” case.
Below is dbrand’s full statement about the cancellation of their Steam Machine Companion Cube.
As you’ve probably noticed, the Steam Machine Companion Cube was eviscerated from our website, YouTube, and other social media platforms last week.
The blunt version is that we made the Companion Cube without a license from Valve. Everyone who purchased a Companion Cube will have their refund issued by end-of-day. Everything else beyond this is just detail. If you want the full story, keep reading.
On November 12th 2025, the day the Steam Machine was announced, we put up a concept render and sign-up page to see if anyone would be interested in a Companion Cube enclosure. It went moderately viral, with over fifteen thousand people signing up to be notified in the first day. In the months that followed, we built the idea into something real without ever asking Valve if we could.
We’re going to regret that decision for a very long time.
Over the next seven months, we poured our souls into this project. More than a thousand hours went into engineering from our industrial design team. Forty-four sets of injection molding tools were developed, one for each of the cube’s sub-components. The entire product was redesigned from scratch more than once, just to get the way it cradles the console exactly right. We literally rented out a university campus to film the launch video. By the end, we were losing money on every $99 Poverty Cube sold, but it didn’t matter. This had turned into a passion project for the entire organization.
Unfortunately, being proud of the thing we made did not give us the right to make it.
We launched around 3am on Monday, June 22nd. Overnight, it became the second-fastest selling product in our 15-year history, behind only the Switch 2 Killswitch.
Shortly after, Valve’s legal team reached out. They stated that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property, for which dbrand does not have a license. They requested we take down the product and launch film immediately. This was entirely within their rights, and they were direct, fair, and respectful throughout.
We took everything down and made an appeal. We asked Valve whether there was any way to keep the project alive: properly licensed, with their blessing, on their terms. They said no. Given our backwards approach of building first and asking permission later, it was a fair answer.
That’s basically the whole story. We made something a lot of people were excited about, then incinerated our shot at bringing it to market. It’s a hard lesson to learn publicly.
It goes without saying, but we’ll say it regardless: Valve didn’t do anything wrong here. They built a game franchise a lot of people love and they alone get to decide how it’s used.
To everyone who was as excited about this project as we were: thank you, and sorry. Refunds are being issued today. If it hasn’t landed in your account by the end of this week, you know how to reach us.
To Valve: thank you for Portal, and sorry for the headache. We should’ve asked first.
– dbrand
dbrand has learned a hard lesson here. Hype doesn’t override IP rights. As much as I love dbrand’s Steam Machine Companion Cube, it cannot legally be sold without Valve’s permission. If dbrand can’t get Valve’s permission, its Portal-themed Steam Machine case cannot be sold. If anything, it’s good that this got resolved before cases were shipped to customers. While purchasers would undoubtedly have loved the case, it would have put Valve and dbrand in a tougher legal position.
You can join the discussion on dbrand cancelling its Companion Cube Steam Machine on the OC3D Forums.
