Dbrand is refunding everyone who bought its Steam Machine Companion Cube after admitting it never cleared the product with Valve.
The accessory company announced the Portal-themed Companion Cube enclosure for the Steam Machine in November, then opened preorders on June 22nd. Within days, the product page vanished and the teaser video went private. Dbrand confirmed that Valve's legal team had made contact, and that the Companion Cube was produced without a license. Full refunds are being issued to everyone who placed an order.
What makes this sting a little extra is the scale: Dbrand says the Companion Cube became its second-fastest selling product in 15 years, trailing only the Switch 2 Killswitch. That means a significant volume of enthusiastic buyers are now getting their money back for something that probably should have had a licensing conversation before the preorder page went live, not after.
Dbrand has built a brand on aggressive marketing and the occasional legal grey area, but this one lands differently — skipping the IP holder entirely, collecting payments, and then discovering the problem is a sequence that tends to make legal teams very interested in your process.