If you somehow got your hands on one of Dbrand's unauthorized Companion Cube accessories for the Steam Machine, enjoy the photos you took. The physical cube itself is already on its way back to be destroyed.
Portal 2 fans will recognize the Companion Cube immediately, that iconic pink-heart-adorned box that players spend half the game being emotionally attached to before incinerating it anyway. The irony of these physical replicas meeting the exact same fate is not lost on anyone.
How a licensed-looking product shipped without a license
Dbrand built and began selling a Companion Cube designed as an accessory for Valve's Steam Machine, the portable PC that launches next week with a base 512GB model starting at $1,050. The problem? Valve never gave the green light. Dbrand was producing and selling merchandise built directly on Valve's intellectual property, specifically the iconic imagery tied to the Portal series, without explicit permission.
The company has since published a lengthy public statement owning the mistake. Preorders have been refunded. The product is dead. But that statement left one question unanswered: what happens to the small number of units that already shipped to journalists, influencers, and content creators as review samples?
The answer, it turns out, is destruction.
The recall nobody expected
Dbrand is requesting that all existing samples be returned so the company can destroy them. The units will not become collector's items. They will not be quietly passed along or auctioned off. They are being pulled back and eliminated, which is exactly what happened to the cubes in both Portal games, so at least the lore is consistent.
One of those recalled samples had already been extensively photographed before being sent back. The documentation reveals the full scope of what Dbrand built: detailed Portal iconography across the cube's surface, elaborate packaging, and advertising copy that reportedly hinted at Half-Life 3. That last part almost certainly did not help Dbrand's case with Valve.
What Dbrand got wrong and why Valve had every reason to be upset
Here's the thing: Dbrand is not a small operation. The company has a track record of building high-quality accessories and skins, and it clearly put real effort into this product. The packaging alone shows the level of detail that went into it. That makes the decision to proceed without a license even harder to explain.
Valve's Portal IP is one of the most recognizable in gaming. The Companion Cube specifically carries enormous cultural weight, partly because of how Portal 2 built on the original game's emotional shorthand with the object. Selling merchandise tied to that IP without authorization is the kind of move that forces legal teams into action regardless of how good the product looks.
The advertising that hinted at Half-Life 3 pushed things further. What might have been framed as a tribute product instead read as a company using Valve's most mythologized unreleased title as a marketing hook. That is a difficult position to walk back from.
Where things stand now
Preordered customers have already received refunds. The product line is permanently cancelled. Existing samples are being recalled and destroyed. Dbrand has publicly acknowledged the error, which is at minimum a cleaner resolution than a prolonged legal dispute.
The Steam Machine itself still launches on schedule. The $1,050 base price is higher than Valve originally wanted, and the company has been upfront that price reductions are not guaranteed. For players who were hoping a Companion Cube would sit beside their new hardware, that particular accessory is gone for good.
For everything else Portal-related worth knowing, the Portal 2 guide collection has you covered while you wait to see what, if anything, Valve officially authorizes next.
