The newly minted Android-based gaming console OUYA (recently upgraded to all caps and pronounced “oh-yeah” by many) has been catapulted into the public consciousness via an overwhelmingly supported Kickstarter campaign and brings a free-to-play gaming philosophy. Also on the near horizon, Amazon.com rushed to market with GameCircle and Game Connect, services designed to support the Android-based Kindle Fire with gaming apps. In some ways, it’s got to be obvious that Game Connect’s free-to-play focus would have some excellent peanutbutter-in-my-chocolate connections to make with OUYA’s philosophy.

From what we understand about the OUYA is that they want to open up their entire platform to Android developers and allow them to do anything they want with the console. This will probably be delivered via a user curated marketplace without the stifling restrictions known to the walled gardens such as the Xbox Arcade, iOS gaming, and the little-heard-from PSN small games market.

It’s a fertile ground just waiting to be tilled by the indie gaming developers scene. The only expectation is that indie developers will deliver their games to the OUYA marketplace with some form of free-to-play be it freemium, microtransaction support, or other model, it just has to be open and ready for gamers to take.

Amazon’s Gaming Connect and their API designed to allow free-to-play game developers access to an Android-based device could potentially easily migrate themselves to offer an app for the OUYA. Certainly, it would be separate from the OYUA’s marketplace, but I would broaden the market that indie developers who use Amazon to distribute their work and would have a ready-made platform to do microtransacitons, sell expansions, and other elements of their games that make them tick.

Chances are good if Amazon doesn’t jump on this opportunity, other content delivery services will take that niche from them and they’re perfectly positioned with their announcements to do exactly this.

The free-to-play gaming market has proven itself extremely lucrative for companies who have entered into it. Sony’s DC Universe Online saw a 700% boost in revenue initially after switching to free-to-play in the midst of a 24% increase in spending in the United States on such games; EverQuest 2 saw a 300% increase in their player base when they switched markets as well. Bringing in more users is an important thing for publishers, because it’s been shown over the years that on average free-to-play gamers tend to spend about $60 per user on games they like; this might become spread out across the market as the competition heats up, but the resource is there.

With the OUYA well funded via Kickstarter and poised to launch directly into the free-to-play ecology, a gaming delivery service that also manages transactions will be a business opportunity too lucrative to let pass by.

Amazon seems to have the perfect solution for it.