After Valve announced the Steam Machine, popular tech toy maker Dbrand announced the perfect accessory for it: a 3D case wrap that turns it into a Companion Cube, the mindless but beloved item from Valve's Portal series. Unfortunately, it neglected to do something important: secure Valve's permission to use the design.
Customers noticed that the pre-order page disappeared and that they were to be refunded; the company apologized and explained itself today at its subreddit: "To Valve: thank you for Portal, and sorry for the headache"
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.
According to its posting, Dbrand spent more than a thousand hours engineering the design, developed 44 sets of injection molding tools, rented out a university campus to film its launch video, and finally launched it last week. It became the company's second-fastest selling product in its 15-year history, it adds.
Then Valve's lawyers got in touch.
"They were direct, fair, and respectful throughout," Dbrand wrote. "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."
This was not a triumph. Making a note here: huge failure.
Tom's Hardware described it all as a "characteristically dumb" Dbrand move.
The popular skin manufacturer has previously found itself in similar hot waters with Sony and Nintendo. You may remember the famous "Darkplates" saga where the company similarly took advantage of an open customization feature and started selling faceplates for the newly-launched PS5. On the other hand, it also sold unofficial Zelda skins for the Switch OLED, literally called "Clone of the Kingdom."
