Cube was a lie
Dbrand has cancelled its Steam Machine Companion Cube enclosure and is refunding all orders. The company confirmed that the Portal-themed accessory was made without permission from Valve.
The product was removed from dbrand’s website, YouTube and social media channels last week. In a public statement, Dbrand said the reason was simple: it did not have a license to use Valve’s Companion Cube intellectual property.
dbrand built the project before asking Valve
According to Dbrand, the project started on November 12, 2025, the day Valve announced the new Steam Machine. The company posted a concept render and a sign-up page to measure interest. More than 15,000 people reportedly signed up on the first day.
Source: Dbrand
The company later turned the concept into a real product. Dbrand says the project required more than 1,000 hours of engineering work and 44 sets of injection molding tools. The enclosure was designed to hold Valve’s Steam Machine and was sold in two versions, including the $99 “Poverty Cube”.
Valve legal team requested takedown
Dbrand says the Companion Cube launched at around 3 AM on Monday, June 22. It became the company’s second-fastest selling product in 15 years, behind only the Switch 2 Killswitch.
Shortly after launch, Valve’s legal team contacted Dbrand. According to Dbrand, Valve stated that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property and requested that the product and launch video be taken down. Dbrand says Valve was “direct, fair, and respectful” during the process.
The company then asked Valve if the product could continue as an officially licensed accessory. Valve declined. Dbrand says this was a fair answer because the company built the product first and asked for permission later.
All Companion Cube buyers are being refunded. Dbrand says refunds are being issued today and should reach customers by the end of the week. The company also said Valve “didn’t do anything wrong” and apologized for the issue.
RIP 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.
Source: Reddit
