Over the past eight years, Valve has perfected digital PC-game distribution through its storefront and community client, Steam. The service's importance to Mac gamers is huge -- remember when you needed a Windows rig to play Half-Life 2 or Team Fortress 2? Or try your hand at virtualization, or dual booting? Well, if recent rumors are true, the business relationship between Valve and and our favorite Cupertino company could be expanding.

According to AppleInsider, Apple CEO Tim Cook was supposedly spotted paying a visit to Valve's Bellevue, Washington headquarters on Friday. Unfortunately, that's also about the extent of revealing information in regards to the meeting. Was Cook interested in an acquisition? A merger of game distribution platforms? Pippin 2? (Please don't say it's Pippin 2).

Now, don't jump to the conclusion Apple and Valve are necessarily holding secret meetings, conspiring to join forces into some type of digital game distribution Voltron. It's entirely possible Cook was dropping by to eat a sandwich with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, for all anyone knows. But taking a look at the two companies' ongoing motives in the videogame retail space, a new partnership seems entirely plausible.

First things first: Apple is probably not buying Valve. Rumors of an acquisition immediately floated to the surface this past weekend, but the concept doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Forbes recently estimated Valve's worth at $2 to $4 billion, with an employee roster of only 250. Couple those staggering figures with the company's nearly 70-percent claim in the downloadable PC games market, and it's hard to imagine Valve selling out.

Lack of a new logo on Valve's letterhead notwithstanding, both entities stand a lot to gain from some type of new venture. Early in its lifecycle, Steam was often referred to as "iTunes for games," which seems funny now, given how much the App Store's game distribution setup probably owes to Valve's model. Apple dominates the mobile games market, a sector where Valve has no foothold, while Apple could clearly benefit from exposure to Steam's 40-million-strong user base. Joining distribution forces seems like a safe bet.

A month ago, the internet went all aflutter over rumors Valve was developing its own home console, dubbed the "Steam Box." The company denied any specific hardware was under development, but a few days ago, the company posted a job ad seeking an electronics hardware engineer. On Friday, the same day Cook supposedly dropped by, Valve employee Michael Abrash posted a blog (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun) detailing his current R&D work into "wearable computing." Google is already working on augmented reality glasses, so it's entirely conceivable Apple is interested in Valve's take on similar tech.

Honestly, all of this is pure conjecture, since we don't even know who supposedly saw Tim Cook enter Valve's offices. My money's still on that sandwich theory. Delicious, augmented reality sandwiches.