Microsoft’s new Xbox One was revealed; how does it stand next to the Ouya?
Ah yes, the Ouya; haven’t heard about it for a while have you? Well, in today’s rush of knowledge about Microsoft’s New Xbox One, I wanted to take a look at how these two consoles stack up next to each other. At first glance, you would think that the system specs tell the story, but there is more to this story than you know.
First off, the Specs
Xbox One: AMD 8-Core CPU, 8GB of RAM DDR3, 1080p and 4k supported video, 500GB hard drive storage, HDMI in/output, 802.11n wifi.
Ouya: Nvidia 4-Core CPU, 1GB of RAM DDR3, 1080p supported video, 8GB internal storage with cloud access (upgradable), HDMI output, 802.11n, g, b.
As I said, this is what most people will care about and, when it comes to specs: Xbox One’s specs blow Ouya out of the water. However, this leads me to my first big point:
A console is not just a set of hardware specs.
It is important to remember that the system specs of a console only mean so much. Yes, the Xbox One has a much higher potential for powerful computing than the Ouya does. However, there are a ton of other factors.
Price
The Xbox One might have impressive specs, but those won’t come cheap. No official price point has been announced, but sources predict a $300 minimum for Xbox One. The Ouya, on the other hand, will only cost $99.
Price is a big element. If gamers have to buy a system, a set of games to go along, and additional controllers – suddenly you spend a good chunk of change. Gaming isn’t cheap on the Xbox One, but is on the Ouya.
Size
Ouya is tiny, very transportable, and requires seconds to set up or move. The Xbox One is big. It is about the size of a Xbox 360 and requires a good deal of set up. The Xbox One seems intended to be a full entertainment system that will dominate a living room. The Xbox One is not meant to travel, it is meant to sit and look pretty. Good luck moving the Xbox One around to a friend’s house.
Again, this is a dividing factor. The Ouya seems like a much more user-friendly system that encourages you to bring it over to a friend’s place. The Xbox One is meant for homes and not meant to travel. When I think about my glory days of gaming, I was a student in high school or college and sharing a console with my friends. The prospect of a cheap and small console that I could throw in a bag and easily bring across campus is mighty appealing. Lugging a massive entertainment system place-to-place…less than ideal.
Functionality
Finally, I want to bring up the functions and apps that each system offers. We don’t know for sure yet, but it seems like the Ouya’s open source nature (it is Android based, remember) will easily come up with readily available equivalent apps to all of the Xbox One apps.
Conclusion
Really, the only thing the Xbox One has over the Ouya is sheer graphical power. Past that, the Ouya seems to be a much more attractive package. So what do you value more? A cheap, small, and transportable open-source console with passable (still 1080p) graphics? Or an expensive, big, stationary Microsoft console with excellent graphics?
Besides, Ouya already boasts 126 games for the system, and it hasn’t even been released yet! Contrast that to the very small number of games on the Xbox One, which consist of sports games or Call of Duty.
For me, the other pros of the Ouya far outweigh the graphical power. I’ll be picking up an Ouya instead of an Xbox One. What about you? What do you value more in a console?
