How Does the Crowd-Funded Ouya Game Console Compare?

Cost

The biggest initial draw of the Ouya is the small price tag attached to it. At only $99.99, compared to $200 (or more) for a PS3 or Xbox 360, some might consider it a steal. Though its appealing value by no means ensures that gamers will buy a Ouya in favor of one of the next-gen consoles from the big three: Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony.

As with any console, the price of games ranges depending on the popularity and time of release. One of the benefits of owning the console is the ability to play free demos of any game before purchasing them. The downside of that arrangement is you don’t learn the price of a game until after downloading the demo.

Controllers are fairly expensive when compared to the overall cost of the console. While first-party gamepads cost roughly ¼ of today’s console prices, the Ouya’s controller is marked at ½ of the cost of the console. Third party controllers don’t officially exist just yet, but crazy developers are finding ways to modify their console to work with other peripherals.