This is a marketing stunt
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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That's Dbrands whole schtick. Not a fan of them at all.
They might have gotten away with a "future space crate" design, without the hearts. And then throw in a set of "I ❤️ Dbrand" stickers that you can snip the heart out of.
They could still do a generic "shipping crate" case, with handy little front cover removal tool and storage slot (crowbar emoji goes here).
I am not the least bit surprised.
When they first announced it so soon after the Steam Machine was announced, it couldn't have been more obvious that it's unlicensed. There's just no way they could have secured a license from Valve that fast.
After that though, you might think they had plenty of time to reach out and make a deal. And yes, I did half expect them to do this instead of being complete idiots, but judging by the sheer confidence they showed in the original announcement, being complete idiots is also likely.
I am slightly annoyed at Valve for waiting up until the last possible minute to send that C&D, considering they HAD to know about this product right from the start. But I get it. Giving Valve the maximum benefit of the doubt, they could have decided to wait for dbrand to contact them, and they probably already worked up the terms by which they'd license their IP. But as a sort of power play combined with a test of character, they needed dbrand to be the one to make contact first. And they just waited for that to happen, because dbrand HAD to get a license from them, right? Alas, dbrand failed the test of character. Damn.
Someone pointed this out in another thread, and I think it's worth repeating: dbrand has a history of doing this and has had the same thing happen before when they produced unlicensed faceplates for the PS5.
I feel like the thing with the PS5 faceplates was bs. They're just solid colour plastic. But the companion cube one I can understand, as that it was using the design of a "character"(?) that Valve owns without permission
I don't know a thing about IP laws, so I can't judge what shape of plastic is required to provide a basis for an IP rights violation. The reason I linked this was that I would take this entire story with a huge grain of salt, considering this company did this before and has apparently not learned all that much from that experience.
Yeah, I get that. I agree that dbrand seem quite sketchy with all that stuff you linked to. Especially the Twitter thing, that's just fucked up.
I mean this kind of honesty is pretty rare these days
Not that rare, considering they did the exact same thing already.
Kinda looks like they're doing it on purpose so that the following apology gets them some free publicity and reputation for being honest... which is manipulative and shady.
That PR person is over this shit lmao
Well there ya go
Tell me your company leadership has ADHD without saying it.
Have they actually worked with Valve before? How could they be dumb enough to not reach out first?
Or was this maybe an attempt to strong-arm Valve into granting them a license? Like, did they expect them to go, "well shit, you've got so many preorders now I guess we'll have to sign off on it"?
Or did they simply expect Valve not to care?
Considering almost the exact same thing happened with Sony before, one can only assume it was on purpose.
LOL I thought I was the only one that remembered the dark plates debacle
Talk about boneheaded. This idea would have been an easy shoe-in for all parties involved. How is a company whose whole business model is to work with licensing designs manage to forget like the first step in licensing?
What else do they have that is licensed?
On brand, honestly. The cake is a lie. Companion cube incinerated. Waiting for Valve to put out a GLaDOS front plate now.
That sucks, but is understandable. I hope Valve can do something positive like buy the design from Dbrand then sell it themselves. Then Dbrand doesn't loose a bunch of money, Valve can protect their IP, and fans can buy the fun thing they want. Seems unlikely, but it would be cool.
Just recreate the skin with AI and now it's Anthropic's problem.
*taps head
The companion cube gets made and valve sues anthropic into oblivion. That's a win-win in my book.
Only if Valve invests the winnings into Linux, which tbf they probably would
You absolutely have the right to make it. Selling it for a profit however…
You don't actually have to make a profit for it to be a trademark violation
Sure fine cool… but you feel me?
I do wonder if Valve will do a 180 and agree to license it. Seems like they could stand to make good money by just charging dbrand a per-unit fee
I doubt it, they seemed pretty pissed at how dbrand works.
If I had a steam machine I'd want one of these
I’m not gonna lie, not being able to buy it makes me want the steam machine less. Sadly I don’t even need one to begin with.
Agree, but mostly its the AI companies that make me not want to buy it
They should have made it cost 50% more than planned as a tribute.
If valve does a real weighted companion cube steam machine I'm in real danger of throwing down a lot of money for something I don't really need.
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