Being the CEO of the worlds most valuable company means that Tim Cook can’t visit many places unnoticed. Yesterday it was reported by a number of news and blogging sites that Cook was seen to visit Valve’s headquarters in Washington. For those that don’t know Valve are a huge gaming company, responsible for games such as Half-Life and the incredibly successful PC gaming platform Steam which works kind of like Apple’s App Store.

While no reasoning or explanation behind the visit has been given, it’s clear Tim wouldn’t of traveled to the headquarters just for a casual chat, and it’s likely to be linked with the Apple branded games console we have all hoped for. However this will not be a device on its own, CultOfMac have reported from their ‘Sources’ that yesterday’s meeting was to discuss an Apple branded games console that will be built in to upcoming Apple HDTV Sets.

It’s not an idea that’s new, this upcoming Apple iTV as it is nicknamed is aiming to be so much more than a television, it aims to be a full on entertainment center that will be like your TV, iMac, iPad and now possibly games console all wrapped into one.

If the rumours are to be believed then this meeting with Valve seems to be for Tim to gain a bit more insight on the gaming industry, or maybe to discuss a possible partnership with Valve themselves for this new product. The unnamed sources at CultOfMac say that Apple’s television set will come with an Apple-branded, Kinect-like video game console and the interface will rely heavily on motion and touch controls. Although the source is somewhat questionable, the concept seems very plausible.

With all the news and rumors coming in on the all in one Apple TV set it seems very likely that this meeting was indeed for the reasons stated above. We have heard so much about this device ‘reinventing’ the way we think about television and even suggestions that it will be called the ‘iPanel’ for this reason.

We are slowly being able to piece together the pieces of the puzzle for this market breaking product from Apple, and you can be sure we will keep you updated on everything you need to know on this upcoming Apple HDTV set, expected later this year.