Ever gone to a friend’s house and just wished you had your game saves on you – somehow? What about the aftermath of a gaming computer hardware failure? One new service will let you back up your saves as well as DRM-free games (however many of those there are these days) to a cloud, so you can access them anywhere in the event that you lose game data through some catastrophic event. Or, you know, just so you can access it anywhere.

Envizions Computer Entertainment Corporation’s “GameBox” is starting a beta on May 12, and by going to http://www.gameboxbeta.com or http://www.envizionscorp.com/ and either signing up for a 14-day free trial or purchasing a storage package, you can get in on the action. (Hint: The first 2,500 people to sign up get a tiny amount of free access.) They’re actually really affordable – one gigabyte of storage space in the cloud only costs $1 a month and should hold your game saves no problem, unless you’ve got a million of them or something.

Additional pricing and storage options include 20 gigabytes for $4.95, 50 gigabytes for $9.95, 100 gigabytes for $19.95 and 1 terabyte for $199 per month. (In the event that you don’t have the money for a month, you’ll be given “ample time” to pay, so not everything will be lost immediately.) If you need more than a terabyte, you may have a problem with compulsive hoarding. If you want more games, GameBox will be offering some for free, with a store also open to purchase games.

The GameBox client, which operates on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, scans your system for game files and game data. It reorganizes your data for you so you don’t have to search for saved games again. (This, however, seems to be easy enough to turn off, since the client is configurable. I know I hate when applications just move stuff around on me.) GameBox is a complete rebranding of Envizions’ EVO console, which originated back in 2006 as a complete home media solution. (Service for EVO owners will not be interrupted, and GameBox services will work on the console.)

Depending on how much space you purchase for the month, you can even upload game files for those titles you just don’t play anymore in order to free up some room on your computer (at the moment, the system appears to only support uploading games with no DRM). It can even run in the background and find out when your saves have been changed in order to replace the older ones. When you install a new game, that data can also be added to your account. Everything’s uploaded using SSL or other kinds of encryption to keep your personal information safe.

It can help you out with console game saves, as well, but not as easily. At the moment, you have to move your console saves to your computer using removable media and then GameBox will archive the files, since it knows what sorts of file extensions to look for. In the future, GameBox plans to have a more robust solution.

All of this won’t really go as far as it can without partners on board, and I asked Chris McInnish from Envizions if they have any future plans as far as cooperative efforts go.

“We do have a few developers on board and hope to expand those relationships as we move forward. We plan to reveal a few developer names next week,” McInnish said. “We’ve also attracted a hardware partner and a few software partners that can leverage our platform with their outstanding platforms.”

McInnish also noted that in the future, some games’ DRM won’t matter, as long as they get publishers’ consent. “GameBox will support games with DRM and without. That will be a decision based on what the game developer chooses. We want GameBox to be developer-friendly and to provide them with tools and storage for their teams,” he said.

But despite the name, it won’t all be about games. Paid users will have access to Internet Video Archive’s library of trailers, television clips and music videos.

The developers have great plans for the future of GameBox. Updates will add more game compatibility as well as social components and a service called “Game-Push” that will change the service into a complete cloud gaming solution. They’re also working on an app for Android mobile phones that will allow your phone to become a console on the go. In the future, Envizions is also planning for more data backup options – that is, not limiting storage to games only. Having videos, music or other documents stored in the cloud is incredibly appealing.

Here are a couple of screenshots of GameBox in action.