OnLive signs up with Ouya

The latest news from the Ouya project is that it has signed up with the cloud-based gaming service OnLive.

Ouya is the latest tech Kickstarter darling, which set a new record for reaching a million dollars of funding in just 12 hours, and $2 million on its first full day. It has currently racked up $5.5 million in funding.

And everyone has been talking about the $99 Android-powered console, which wants to be completely open to developers and users alike.

One concern, however, is the sort of games which will be out on the system. Obviously Android mobile games are a given, but what Tegra 3 can do in terms of console style gaming is something of an unknown – even though the chipset will be able to kick out more horsepower without having to worry about the battery and heat issues that limit mobile devices.

OnLive, though, should prove a useful addition in terms of gaming relevance, as the system doesn’t rely on the local hardware, streaming the game from a server instead. The only variable is the speed of your broadband connection, not processor or GPU.

The cloud-based OnLive system offers syncing of saves and so forth across devices, and free demos of games so you can try before you buy.

OnLive’s General Manager, Bruce Grove, commented: “Ouya is rethinking the console business, making waves by using standard technology to make gaming for your living room accessible, affordable and more innovative than ever.”

“In OnLive’s case, we pioneered a groundbreaking, cloud-based system that instantly delivers games to any device on demand. We are pleased to announce that OnLive will be available on Ouya at launch, extending and building on our commitment to make the best games available to everyone, everywhere.”

Of course, we shouldn’t get too excited about Ouya just yet. It’s one thing to have a great idea and secure $5 million worth of funding inside a month, but it’s entirely another to mass produce and distribute a console, globally, in good time.