The Steam Machine has been among us for a few weeks now – albeit with a hefty price tag and limited availability – and knockoffs are already emerging. Meanwhile, Valve is letting users who are especially creative tinker with its exterior… if they can follow the instructions.
As explained by our friends at Digital Foundry, Valve has quietly released the CAD files for the Steam Machine’s exterior under a “Creative Commons ‘Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike 4.0 International’ license, which allows sharing and adapting, but prohibits commercial work”. It can be obtained here.
Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais – one of the company’s most publicly active engineers – noted that it’s highly recommended that you let professionals do the work. “Any damage you do will not be covered by your warranty,” he added. This is also part of the files’ attached readme document.
These are technically meant to help users create custom front plates, but as always, Valve is expecting people to surprise them with bigger custom modifications. Just remember that any wrapper, skin, or front plate made with the help of these official files can’t be sold legally.
In fact, you might remember renowned company dbrand – which focuses on accessories for electronic devices – had to bin its planned Companion Cube wrap in June, since it had somehow commenced work on and opened pre-orders for a Portal-inspired modification that hadn’t been licensed from Valve. While it could return one way or another in the future, those original plans had to be scrapped for obvious reasons.
At the time of writing, I’ve yet to come across any designs made thanks to the official CAD files, but I’m holding out hope for a GabeCube design blending the classic Nintendo GameCube look – handle included, as DF’s William Judd also said – and Valve iconography. Or maybe just make it a literal GabeCube.