(Credit: Jsaux)
One of the perks of Valve's 2026 Steam Machine may be easy customization. Electronic accessories firms Jsaux and Dbrand are showcasing a range of skins and shell designs for the upcoming handheld, which could add some much-needed flavor to an otherwise uninspiring (if rather cute) design.
The Steam Machine doesn't have a price yet, but it's already generating a lot of hype for its potential performance and support for Valve's new Steam Controller. But it's very much just a cube (prompting many Cube memes among the wider gaming community). Valve did tease the little RGB light bar as a potential point of personal style, but adding a whole new front panel or case skin would go way beyond that.
As VideoCardz reports, Jsaux is developing an E-Ink front-panel design that could showcase system vitals in a unique fashion. There are also dot-matrix and LCD versions available for those with more specific tastes, but all should be hot-swappable and provide a quick way to update the look and feel of your Steam Machine.
Dbrand is going one step further and teased a Portal companion cube skin that replaces the external chassis of the Steam Machine with an adorable Cube skin. It's reportedly only planned as a limited release, but if it proves popular, there's no doubt this could be turned into a regular product offering.
(Credit: Dbrand)Neither company has announced pricing, but with a price tag of around $60 for a Dbrand Steam Deck skin, it's hard not to see any kind of Steam Machine case skin costing upward of $100. Perhaps front panels could be cheaper at $50 each, but they won't be extremely affordable. Much like the Steam Machine itself, I imagine.
Gamers have also been having fun with this concept. NotebookCheck collected a bunch of fun options, including a Gamecube skin, a missing texture checkerbox design, and a Minecraft grass block, among others.