dBrand Never Got Permission To Create The Companion Cube Steam Machine Case

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In the lead-up to the launch of the Steam Machine, dBrand had created one of the more exciting cases that we have seen for the device. It was of the iconic Companion Cube from Portal, and personally, I was extremely excited for it. I even had a version of it shipped out to me early so I could prepare for reviewing it. However, the page for the Companion Cube was abruptly taken down without any explanation as to why. Now, we have that explanation, and it makes complete sense why it was taken down.

According to an official post from dBrand on Reddit, they actually never had permission to make this case. They talked about it as a concept, which went moderately viral, and then spent seven months creating a project. However, despite becoming the second-fastest product they have sold, they never actually received permission from Valve to create this case based on their intellectual property. dBrand complied, and despite reaching out to appeal and bring it back, Valve said no.

It’s a crazy situation, and it seems like a massive oversight that doesn’t make much sense. The Companion Cube is very clearly part of Valve’s IP, so creating an entire project based around it without even thinking to ask Valve whether they could make it in the likeness of their property is astounding. It’s an extreme oversight, one that feels so odd to have come from a company that has been around for so long and has worked on so many devices and products.

On the plus side, they have accepted and acknowledged that Valve is completely within its rights to make this call, especially after making this product without any permission. They are owning it and issuing refunds for the cube by the end of today, so anyone who has purchased one will be getting their money back. I’m glad that they are just owning up to their mistake, but it still feels like a huge mistake that could’ve just been avoided by asking Valve first.

For now, it sounds like dBrand has seen where they went wrong for this and are making a change, and I hope it doesn’t happen again. I really like this Companion Cube, and it would’ve been cool to see it released into the wild, but there’s no way it should be done without permission from the company that created it.

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