Well, I haven't read this thread since I haven't played it yet, and it's full of spoilers, but I just HAVE to contribute:
FFVII REMAKE
1-How it happened:
1-1: Square Enix had gone on a Remake rampage back then, FF1,2,4,5,6 got remade on GBA, 1-2 on PSP (and recently 4) 3-4 on DS, and then there were the Dragon Quest remake, so a remake of their almost most popular game FF7 didn't seem that unlikely.
1-2: FF7 had received plenty of attention before. They made 3 games that were related to FF7 story, and even produced a full-blown CG film. It was only logical to think that if they have the budget and profit for all these spin-offs, then they can do a remake as well. Aside that, much of the character's looks and whatnot had already been updated by nomura, so the art direction was clear for a remake.
1-3: Square-Enix actually made a freaking tech demo, showing how a remade FF7 would look like. Needless to say this sky rocketed the demand for a FF7 remake even if it was just a tech demo. I personally almost shat my pants when I saw the tech demo. They even included a MENU at the end of the demo. SE shouldn't have made something like that and then go: "just tech demo, lol."If they truly didn't want to do it.
2-Why people say it's impossible:
2-1: Not profitable: a remake won't sell, so there's no point making one. People want new updated games.
2-2: Costs too much: a remake would be really expensive, and SE is currently focusing on new FFs and doesn't have the budget to do a FF7 remake.
2-3: Old game: Gamer's nowadays prefer different gameplay than FF7's, so a remake would have to change so much that remaking it wouldn't make sense anymore.
3-Why all their arguments are belong to invalid:
3-1: Not profitable: If all the spin-offs and films, novels, anime and all that were profitable, then so is the remake. Aside that, as others have previously mentioned, there are plenty of statistics that show the market demand of FF7 remake.
3-2: Costs too much: Same as not profitable, they could do all that they can do this as well. Plus, SE is developing plenty of other titles that arguably doesn't have the profit FF7 remake has, and doesn't seem to mind the initial investment. Note that all NES and SNES era FFs have been remade. And FFX is getting an HD re-release. It wouldn't be so hard for them to just up the graphics a bit and release an updated one on PSN. It wouldn't cost much and it would still sell like crazy. Besides, SE is a pretty big company, if they can buy an entire game publisher, I can assure you they can invest in a game.
3-3: Old game: With all the other remakes, its obvious that this doesn't affect their decision much. They didn't have any problems with remaking the games before (Romancing Saga comes to mind) so why should they have one now? Plus, they can update the gameplay, and let the player decide whether they want to play with the modern gameplay or just play the classic game with better graphics. That's something that can easily solve this issue with no noticeable cost. For the difficulty, there's something called a difficulty switch, it lets the players choose how difficult they want their game to be. It's pretty neat.
4-My conclusion:
SE is planning to release a remake both for FF7 and Chrono Trigger, but not just now. They know how invaluable these two titles are, and they don't want to ruin the opportunity with a rushed game or a simple graphic overhaul. I say FF7 tech demo was to gauge the market demand on FF7 remake. They know exactly how profitable it is for them. They are probably waiting so they can target two different kind of audiences with this game, one the obvious FF7 fans who will definitely get it no matter what, and two the people who have never played FF7 in their lives, those who would find the remake a good opportunity to jump in. I also believe they're waiting for a similar atmosphere to the fifth gen. Where quality would result in sales. Unfortunately the industry is not like that currently, with CoDs selling like crazy, SE sees their longtime profit in just going with the flow for now. If the conditions change, or the time comes, SE would be more than happy to cash in on FF7, specially since developing a remake in a later time (maybe next gen) would cost much less (same as Gen4 remakes in Gen7). For now, they're just trying to keep the market demand high, so they can use it at a later time. It's a pretty well known business tactic.
tl;dr: IMO SE will do it in the future.
Originally Posted by Elin
