Demonstrating Apple's growing active nature when it comes to marketing games on the App Store, it's launched its Big Games, Great Prices promotion.

Running until October 7, it's basically a list of games such as NFL 2011, Doom, Driver, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil 4 that are now priced $2.99 or less.

Interestingly, it's not a global initiative however as over 50 games are listed on the US App Store, while only 15 are included in the UK store.

Down, down

So what, a game sale, you might be thinking?

But talking to some of those involved, it seems Apple has used the initiative in a fairly active and co-operative manner to encourage content providers to drop the prices on their apps - mainly back catalog releases - to gain inclusion within the list, within the payback being much increased download volumes. 

From that point of view then, it's significant in terms of Apple increasingly using its power as a platform holder to directly drive App Store sales, which is why it's being labelled as "Apple's first ever iTunes sale".

Perhaps more interesting though are the companies included, which tend to be larger publishers such as Square Enix, PopCap, Namco Networks, Capcom, Konami, Activision, Gamevil and EA Mobile, although high profile developers such as Firemint and id Software are also included.

You can see the full list of games via iTunes here.