Ouya, a US-based video gaming startup, has announced a tie-up with smartphone maker Xiaomi to help it tap into China’s booming video game market.

The companies are discussed a revenue sharing arrangement as well as the game titles they will first introduce later this year, a report from Reuters said. Ouya’s platform has more than 900 games, which are designed to work on TVs using controllers.

The move could give Ouya, which crowd-sourced its funding on Kickstarter, access to a huge growth market after it has faced difficulty lining up partnerships back home.

China’s gaming market grew 38 per cent last year and was estimated at $14 billion by the China Games Party, an industry-tracking group. While much of the industry is focused on mobile and online, many analysts say consoles are making a recovery from a few slow years.

After just three years, Xiaomi became the top seller of smartphones in China in Q2 with a 14-per cent market share, selling 15 million units (Samsung shipped 13.2 million), according to Canalys.

But the firm is looking beyond mobile devices and last year moved into the set-top box and TV space with the launch of its MiBox and MiTV, which is the attraction for Ouya.

Although details haven’t been released on how Xiaomi will market its games, Ouya reportedly is looking to have a dedicate channel on Xiaomi software installed on TVs and set-top boxes, so gamers can shop and download the US-firm’s games.