Dbrand Kills Portal Companion Cube Case After Valve's Legal Warning

We have all heard that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission, but as Dbrand is finding out, permission still matters. Having not secured it from Valve before forging ahead with its Portal-themed Companion Cube case for the Steam Machine, Dbrand has been forced to cancel the project and issue refunds to everyone who purchased one.

"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," Dbrand states in a post on Reddit.

The company goes on to say it will "regret that decision for a very long time" while offering up additional background and context. It all started on November 12, 2025, when Valve formally introduced its refreshed Steam Machine. On the same day, Dbrand posted a concept render and sign-up page for a Steam Machine case designed after the Companion Cube in Portal, which went "moderately viral" with over 15,000 people signing up to be notified on the first day.

Seeing that kind of interest, Dbrand's excitement got the better of it, and it forged ahead with turning the concept into an actual product, admittedly without ever asking Valve if it could. Dbrand said it spent more than 1,000 hours designing and engineering its case, including the development of 44 sets of injection molding tools, one for each of the case'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," Dbrand explains. Unfortunately, being proud of the thing we made did not give us the right to make it."

After launching in the wee hours of the night (or morning, depending on context—3:00 a.m.) last week, the Companion Cube case became Dbrand's second-fastest product in its 15-year history, only surpassed by its Killswitch case for the Nintendo Switch 2. Then Valve reached out. Put simply, the Companion Cube is Valve's intellectual property, and Dbrand did not have a license to make products based on it.

"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," Dbrand says.

RIP Companion Cube: https://t.co/SLeO9Mdy6Q pic.twitter.com/fHi5gOrVoq

— dbrand (@dbrand) June 29, 2026

The fault lies entirely with Dbrand, and that sentiment is shared by the many replies to the post on Reddit explaining why the Companion Cube case is cancelled. At least Dbrand is taking it in stride, though. Rather than lashing out at Valve, which did nothing wrong here, it fessed up to its blunder, gave Valve kudos in its explanation, and is poking fun at itself on X (as seen above).

Other companies should consider this a cautionary tale and forget all about the adage suggesting it is easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission.