Tech accessory company dbrand has canceled its Steam Machine Companion Cube enclosure effective immediately because it didn't ask Valve for permission to make it in the first place.
  • Washedupcynic@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 days

    They make skins for the steam deck, so it’s not like they didn’t know how to get permission to do this kind of thing. I sort of feel like this company does stupid shit on purpose to generate media coverage and considers the media coverage a win for brand recognition; financial consequences be damned.

    • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2 days

      They don’t need permission to make skins. The reason they need it here is because the companion cube is copyright 2006 Valve.

  • Klanky@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    3 days

    How can a large company be run this poorly? I’m just a non-MBA having idiot and even I know you need to get rights and licenses to do this kind of stuff!

    • just2look@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3 days

      I used to think that there were competent people that knew what was going on. Turns out that most people at every level are incompetent idiots that just fake it.

      Most of the actual competent people are just sitting quietly doing their work, and don’t generally end up in charge of anything.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        9 hours

        Popularity is about personal marketing.

        Competency is not.

        How many scientists have you heard of who made groundbreaking discoveries in the last year?

        vs…

        How many extremely rich idiots do you hear about, and from, on an essentially constant basis?

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3 days

      My only guess is that it was dbrand’s attempt to strong-arm Valve into a skewed licensing agreement. Like “look at all these preorders we already have! We already have the design done, we’re already set up to produce them, and we’ll be ready to ship as soon as this contract is done. Just sign here to give us {extremely unfair share}.”

      Basically, a way to say “we’re already way ahead of the game, just sign the contract and you won’t need to worry about trying to catch up.” But Valve obviously disagreed.

      Video game IP theft for merch/skins/etc tends to be extremely rampant already. Tons of sites are full of merch with game characters and iconography that is definitely copyrighted, (oftentimes ripped pixel-for-pixel directly from the game) and definitely not officially licensed. And most tend to skirt along unnoticed. Small fish in a big pond, I suppose. But in this case, Dbrand intentionally made themselves known to the bigger fish. And it clearly didn’t work out for them.

      • JayGray91🐉🍕@piefed.socialEnglish
        2 days

        Doesn’t help dbrand’s case that they tried to do the same thing with SONY with the PS5, IIRC. Not that I’m defending any of these 3 corpos.

        Also dbrand’s marketing schtick is being edgy gamers.

    • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      3 days

      Just about everything in the world is so much more haphazard and fragile behind the scenes than it seems, I think. Corporations exist in such a haze of confusion and process chaos, especially.

  • thingsiplay@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2 days

    They didn’t make sure to have the license before developing it. And it was not the first time to not get the license. Don’t blame others for your own failure.

  • Smaile@lemmy.caEnglish
    3 days

    Are they stupid, individual creators can do that for themselves, not to sell for a buisnees, why are so many dumbasses in positions of power and how can we rip them from the controls, like seriously.

  • WesternInfidels@feddit.onlineEnglish
    3 days

    That apology stinks of LLM to me.

    Or perhaps living in this second-rate Temu timeline is driving me mad.

    • greybeard@feddit.onlineEnglish
      2 days

      I didn’t read it, but all of dBrand’s copy has a certain attitude to it. I doubt it’s AI, just a very unusual brand voice, and it’s kinda cute and funny at first, but after the 5th email in a week with the same “We’re so cool, we’re not like other companies” tone, I unsubscribed.

      • phonics@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 days

        I felt the tone of voice in this was actually a little off. Could you have a look and let me know if you agree. There is some snark, but less than the expected amount for me.

        • greybeard@feddit.onlineEnglish
          2 days

          I just read through it, it was seriously bland by their normal standards, but it didn’t feel AI generated to me. It was missing many of the signatures I’ve come to expect. I’ll give them kudos for being frank, and I do wonder if, perhaps, some lawyering was involved. That may be what you are picking up on.

  • Radical_Socialist_t00t@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 days

    And as we know Valve is a cesspool of capitalism obsessed cis white rightwing males so they obviously weren’t cool about it. Le usual.