The news almost seems too good to be true, a perfect storm of events for the future of one's living room. Numerous websites are reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook met recently with representatives from Valve Software  the very Valve behind the popular Steam digital distribution platform and the subject of many a rumor about home gaming consoles and the like. And don't forget the wearable computer concept either, the latest batch of, "crazy things Valve might be working on" to hit the digital airwaves.

So what are Valve and Apple chatting about?

First off, it could be absolutely nothing: Just an unfortunate series of events that happen to coincide, giving the illusion that Valve is looking for some advice (or a partnership) regarding some of the hardware it's allegedly working on behind-the-scenes  hardware that's designed to, "invent whole new gaming experiences," according to some recent job postings over on Valve's site.

Cult of Mac's Alex Heath seems to think that it's actually the other way around: Tim Cook isn't helping Valve to design, build, and sell its own hardware, rather, Valve is going to team up with Apple to launch a rumored Apple-branded hardware device of its own. And no, that's not the Apple television that's been hitting the airwaves lately. According to Heath, "Our sources also say that Apple's television set will come with an Apple-branded, Kinect-like video game console. The interface will rely heavily on motion and touch controls."

While the concept of an Apple-based gaming console might seem out of place in the ongoing arms race between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo  especially given that each is nearing the release of new consoles themselves  it's not completely out of the question. Especially when one considers recent statements from Valve about how the company would prefer to start playing in the gaming hardware space:

"We'd rather hardware people that are good at manufacturing and distributing hardware do that. We think it's important enough that if that's what we end up having to do then that's what we end up having to do," said Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell in an interview with the Penny Arcade Report's Ben Kuchera.

That said, the "Apple fanboy rumor-mongering" doesn't have everyone convinced. And that's a direct description from Forbes' Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, who doesn't think that Valve and Apple will be launching a gaming console at all  especially since Valve doesn't really have the most extensive list of Mac-friendly titles on Steam.

"Wouldn't it make more sense for Apple to bring iOS games into the living room through an updated Apple TV set top box? There's a massive ecosystem of games here ready to exploit, along with a healthy developer base," Kingsley-Hughes writes.

"That said, folks who own an iPhone/iPad and an Apple TV device can use AirPlay to put games on any HDMI-enabled TV without the need for an Apple-branded TV or an Apple-branded games console. Where does a console fit into the picture?"

Perhaps Cook just wanted to check out Half-Life 3.

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