Lately I've noticed that (more than usual anyways), people really enjoy talking about revenue in reference to just about everything. From software & hardware sales to the discussions back and forth over the merits of which consoles developers should choose to create games for etc...

Clearly in some situations revenue is the only number we are given, particularly with MS who loves revenue because well...frankly profit isn't nearly as positive for them as it is for other companies.

My question is this: Did I miss something that was special about revenue? Perhaps I didn't get the memo or maybe I misunderstand revenue somehow. Because to my knowledge revenue is the cash brought in by the company before overhead/costs are considered at all...just the amount of cash flow generated ...or the "top line" if you will(I know this definition is correct I'm just making a point).

Why aren't people more interested with profits? Profits are what truly matter in this business...well all businesses really. You can own a company that buys widgets for $1 trillion dollars and sells them for 1 trillion and 1 dollars and have over a trillion dollars in revenue..but your profit is still only $1.

Hopefully this doesn't come off as too much of a rant, its not really intended to be. I was just wondering why I see people mentioning revenue so much in speculative debates. I just figured if you're going to speculate about the reasons for developer to do things it would seem more logical for them to be ruled by the bottom line...and not the top.

It's called PR bulls*t. And it's nothing new.

The reason companies use it is because there are enough suckers in the world that buy into it.

 This.

In the real world, what matters to the economy is profit. This is why Nintendo's combined shares are valued much higher than Sony despite Sony having several times more revenue.

 My initial reaction to this was to say that I was referring to the people here on VGC specifically...then I realized you were too....am I wrong on that?

 Revenue's a bigger number!

actually a while ago most people didn't like that idea, but now-a-days you see some random posts come up asking exactly what % do certain parties take out of this. No one observing wants to see revenue but it's much easier to find than profits I guess.

I suppose the real reason is that revenue is always positive (looks better than a negative figure for profit) and often higher for Sony and Microsoft due to their higher prices rather than better sales.

I am not a business guy, but I have a few friends own some companies, and they are very concerned about revenue (in some cases, more than profit).

Selling 100,000 things that make you $10 each is far better than selling 10,000 things that make you $100 each.

I am not sure why. Maybe a business guy could chime in and explain it.

Revenue makes it look like the the wii isn't don't that much better, as the console and it's games cost less. Too boring if Nintendo always has the highest.

Revenue works better for companies who are selling more expensive items.

Think about who uses revenue.

You'll get it.

Mike from Morgantown