Well, it looks as though all of those rumors of Apple trying to hire games industry professionals may not have been all that far off. Today, during the “It’s Showtime” keynote at the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco, Apple announced that they will be releasing iPod-compatible versions of Tetris, Zuma, Mah-Jong, Texas Holdem, Cubis 2, and other games on the iTunes store for $4.99 a piece.

It’s not clear whether these games will only be compatible with the iPod phat yet, or if they’ll also work with the nano. However, Steve J did mention that all of the games should be compatible with the 5G video iPods y’all already have. This is good news, since Apple also announced during their presentation that they’re updating the whole iPod product line - including a “5.5G” video iPod with 60% brighter screen, iPod nanos in colored aluminum enclosures, and a re-designed iPod Shuffle. We’ll update this story with more information as it becomes available on the Apple website.

UPDATE 1: Apple’s website has been updated, indicating that the iGames are compatible only with the 5G iPod or the newly-released 60% brighter 5.5G iPods. iPod nanos are not supported. We’ve downloaded some of these games from the iTunes Store (went very smoothly - this is Apple after all) and will have full reviews up shortly. It’s looking like at least some of these are worth the $5.00 download.