I'm sure there are more than a few of you who just assumed that Dbrand would be making a skin for the newly-announced Steam Machine that lets you turn Valve's new console-shaped gaming hardware into a weighted Companion Cube? At least, I wasn't at all surprised when I woke up this morning to find an email from Dbrand CEO Adam Ijaz saying the company would be announcing the new Portal-referencing skin today.
"Even after accounting for the removable faceplate and air intake requirements, we're confident it's fully viable," Ijaz said. He added that the company will be "refining details over the coming month, but are registering interest now and intend to bring the product to market in early 2026." I'd bet that'll be before the Steam Machine itself. You can jump on a mailing list for the Companion Cube skin on the Dbrand website.
Have a look at the Companion Cube Steam Machine skin, in all its glory:
Now we just need the company to create a skin that, I don't know, makes the upcoming Steam Frame look like Gordon Freeman's face. Or perhaps one that just says "HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED" (it's not) across the front glass or the top of the new Steam Controller? Just spitballing here. Ijaz didn't offer up further details about the Companion Cube skin in his initial email, but I have asked about price and whether the company has considered making one for the Nintendo GameCube – because why not? We'll update when we have more information.
Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.
