{"id":1620034,"date":"2026-06-29T18:30:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/McSQumDUyeRjDmS2PG4VMC"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:30:42","slug":"steam-machine-companion-cube-case-cancelled-because-dbrand-didnt-ask-valve-for-permission-to-make-it-were-going-to-regret-that-decision-for-a-very-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/steam-machine-companion-cube-case-cancelled-because-dbrand-didnt-ask-valve-for-permission-to-make-it-were-going-to-regret-that-decision-for-a-very-long-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam Machine Companion Cube case cancelled because Dbrand didn’t ask Valve for permission to make it: ‘We\u2019re going to regret that decision for a very long time’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back in November 2025, Dbrand teased a Portal Companion Cube case<\/a> for the Steam Machine<\/a>, and while the initial render wasn’t great, the underlying idea was so good that PC Gamer hardware editor Andy Edser declared, “You have to make it now, no takesie-backsies.” Sorry, other Andy, but I’m afraid the takesie-backsies are on, as Dbrand has pulled the plug and scrubbed all trace of its existence from the internet.<\/p>\n

The reason for the sudden turnabout is quite simple: Dbrand, uhh, made the cube without Valve’s permission.<\/p>\n

“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,” Dbrand wrote on Reddit<\/a>. “It went moderately viral, with over 15,000 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.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re going to regret that decision for a very long time.”<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Dbrand)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dbrand said it put “more than a thousand hours” into engineering the project, with multiple redesigns and sets of injection tools involved created to support it, and even rented out a university campus to film the cube’s launch video. “By the end, we were losing money on every $99 Poverty Cube sold, but it didn\u2019t matter. This had turned into a passion project for the entire organization.”<\/p>\n

When sales for the Companion Cube case launched, it became the second-fastest selling in Dbrand’s history. It also came to the attention of Valve, which is where things went very wrong: Valve’s legal team contacted Dbrand to remind it that the Companion Cube is Valve’s property, to which Dbrand did not have a license, and thus requested it all be taken down immediately.<\/p>\n

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