Ouya confirms deal with Alibaba to enter China's console market

The folks at Ouya have confirmed rumors that Chinese firm Alibaba has made an investment in Ouya to bring its catalog of games to Alibaba's YunOS platform, though they will not disclose how much money was involved.

The deal will see Ouya working to get its games up and running on Alibaba's Tmall set-top boxes, part of its ongoing attempt to liberate Ouya games from the console itself via the Ouya Everywhere initiative.

Necrosoft Games founder (and former Game Developer Magazine editor-in-chief) Brandon Sheffield predicted as much in an editorial yesterday, suggesting this deal makes a lot of sense for both companies; Alibaba gets access to a storehouse of digital games that can be played on set-top boxes and smart TVs, while Ouya gets an influx of capital and a leg up in the burgeoning Chinese console market.

Ouya seems to have similar thoughts. "Markets, like China, without the baggage of the U.S. console market, could be the game console leaders in ten years," stated Ouya CEO and founder Julie Uhrman in a press release confirming the deal. "That's where OUYA wants to be."