UK-based online tech tabloid The Inquirer filed a report Wednesday that claims Google is interested in acquiring Valve Software, the studio behind such popular PC games as Half-Life and Portal. However, the article suggests Google would likely be more interested in Valve's popular digital content distribution platform, Steam, which currently offers subscribers access to some 440 games and has some 15 million active accounts, than its games.

“Well placed sources tell us that Google is going to be buying Valve any second now,” states the article, before going on to speculate that while “Google Portal may be a nice idea...Valve has the best content distribution platform out there, bar none.”

The rumour could be true. Just last week Forbes' Chris Morris posted a piece predicting that Google may soon move into games publishing, noting that the search giant has already acquired Adscape, an in-game advertising company, and that it released a Second Life competitor earlier this summer in the form of Google Lively.

Picking up a studio like Valve would make for a logical next step.

If the deal does happen, Google would butt heads yet again with chief competitor Microsoft, which has staked a claim to online content delivery through services such as Xbox Live.

And as for Valve's games? It seems unlikely Google would mess too much with the company's critically acclaimed development team. Not only do the their titles reliably sell millions of copies, Valve's Havok game engine, which governs physics in 3-D environments, is the most popular software of its kind, with licenses sold to and used by scores of major game developers. Best to leave well enough alone, one would think.

In fact, the acquisition could be good news for fans of Valve's games. Mr. Morris suggests in his column that gamers could potentially receive access to the games of any developer Google acquires for free in exchange for viewing a few Google ads.  

The only question, really, is price. What's a company with some of the world's best selling PC games, one of the industry's top game development technologies, and a highly sought after content delivery system worth?

Update: Rumour, says Valve; no comment, says Google

Shacknews contacted Valve marking VP Doug Lombardi for comment on the potential of a Google buyout, and was told that it was just a rumour.

Meanwhile, British tech journal MCV went the other way, contacting Google about the likelihood of a deal, and was told simply that the company doesn't comment on speculation or rumour.

A deal is seeming less likely by the minute. Still, Valve has stated that they're willing to entertain a buyout, and, as pointed out in the Forbes article I referenced above, Google has indeed made moves towards gaming. Even if they aren't in talks now, there's nothing keeping these two companies from courting one another in the future.