The cube-shaped mini PC will not get a cube-shaped companion after all, because Dbrand did not receive permission from Valve.
In November, Dbrand unveiled a Portal Companion Cube case made for the Steam Machine. Although the initial render was not especially impressive, the core idea was good. Dbrand has now shut down the project and erased every trace of it from the internet.
The reason for the sudden 180-degree turn is simple: Dbrand made the cube without Valve’s permission. According to the company, more than a thousand hours went into designing the project, including multiple redesigns and the creation of the injection-molding tools needed for production. It even rented a university campus to shoot the cube’s promotional video.
“On November 12, the day Steam Machine was announced, we posted a concept render and a sign-up page to see whether anyone was interested in a Companion Cube enclosure. The idea received a relatively large response: more than 15,000 people signed up to be notified on the first day.
Over the following months, we turned the idea into a real product without ever asking Valve whether we could. We are going to regret that decision for a very long time. In the end, we lost money on every $99 Poverty Cube sold, but that did not matter. It became a passion project for the entire organization.” the company wrote on Reddit.
When sales of the Companion Cube case began, it became the second fastest-selling product in Dbrand’s history. That also caught Valve’s attention, and this is where the serious problems began.
Valve’s legal team contacted Dbrand to remind the company that the Companion Cube is Valve property, for which Dbrand did not have a license, and demanded that it be removed immediately. According to Dbrand, Valve was direct, fair, and respectful throughout the process, but it rejected Dbrand’s request for a second chance under the correct licenses and entirely on Valve’s terms.
Dbrand admitted that the refusal was a fair response, given the backwards approach it had initially taken: manufacture the product first, then ask for permission later. Valve might have refused to license the cube to Dbrand anyway, particularly if it plans to make its own cube case.
Source: PC Gamer
