Companion Cube Is Canceled After Valve Takedown

Gamers who preordered dbrand’s Portal-inspired Steam Machine Companion Cube will not receive it.

The case thingy has been canceled, its launch video and marketing have been removed, and the company said every order is being refunded after Valve said the design used its intellectual property without a license.

This tweet sums up the whole Situation

The Companion Cube was not delayed, renamed, or moved to a later launch window. The company asked Valve if the enclosure could continue as an officially licensed product, and Valve said Nope…

⚖️ Valve Requested an Immediate Takedown

dbrand opened Companion Cube preorders around 3 a.m. on Monday, June 22. The company said the enclosure became the second-fastest-selling product in its 15-year history, right behind the Switch 2 Killswitch case. (Great case by the way)

Valve’s legal team then told the dbrand that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property and requested that the product page and launch film come down immediately. The company removed both and said Valve’s request was within its rights. The enclosure used the look of Portal’s Weighted Companion Cube, which is a recognizable part of Valve’s game franchise. Valve controls how that design can be used in a commercial product.

🧊 How dbrand Built the Steam Machine Enclosure

The Steam Machine Enclosure started its life on November 12, 2025, the same day Valve announced the new Steam Machine. More than 15,000 people signed up for updates during the first day after a concept render went live. Over the next seven months, the company said its industrial design team spent 1,000+ hours engineering the enclosure, created 44 sets of injection-molding tools for the cube’s parts, redesigned the product more than once, and rented a university campus to film its launch video.

All for nothing casue they forgot to ask for permission…..

Before this fiasco the product received enough early orders to become its second-fastest seller, and now every penny is being Refunded

The company said refunds are starting Monday, June 29, and it expects every Companion Cube pre order-er to receive one. they said pre order-ers should check the original payment method used for the preorder because the order will not be converted into a different Steam Machine accessory.

The company also told buyers to contact it if the refund has not appeared by the end of the week. No replacement product or new launch date was announced. A Licensed Version Is being planned for the future. (Pending this didn’t burn the bridge between Valve and dbrand)

Gamers should avoid treating resale listings, old product pages, or social clips as proof that this version will ship. The official order status is canceled, and refunds are the only confirmed next step for buyers.

Do you think Valve will license a official Companion Cube enclosure for the Steam Machine with dbrand in the future?