Square-Enix Still Isn't Remaking FF7

[Waaghpowa]

Well it's easy to pass judgment from the sidelines when you're not the one who has to consider all the factors involved. Besides, who'se worse, them for making these HD collections or the people who are stupid enough to actually buy them? You can't really blame them for giving the customers what they apparently want even if it is just a worthless gimmick.

I do not recall a single time where people asked for all of these HD collection games, I know I didn't ask for any of it. Of course it's part the consumers fault for buying into it, but it's not like the consumers are the only ones at fault. Publishers could easily say no and spend the money making something original, but they don't.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well it's easy to pass judgment from the sidelines when you're not the one who has to consider all the factors involved. Besides, who'se worse, them for making these HD collections or the people who are stupid enough to actually buy them? You can't really blame them for giving the customers what they apparently want even if it is just a worthless gimmick.

I do not recall a single time where people asked for all of these HD collection games, I know I didn't ask for any of it. Of course it's part the consumers fault for buying into it, but it's not like the consumers are the only ones at fault. Publishers could easily say no and spend the money making something original, but they don't.

Really? If I had a dime for every "Which games would you like to see remade in HD?" thread or any variation there of I've seen on this forum alone I'd be a very wealthy man.
And yes, the Publishers could say no and produce something original instead, but the reason they're not lends itself to a completely different issue entirely.

EDIT: oops, typo.

 

[antipunt]

I'd actually be -very- disturbed if they DID make a ff7 remake. It'd bring my opinion of SE down to a wholllleee new level.

Cashing in on nostalgia because you have absolutely nothing left? Aiyeeeeee >_>

 

[Mortuorum]

So... essentially... Square-Enix doesn't like making money?

No. No. That's not it at all.

Go away and read this article. Go on. I'll wait...

Read it? Good. Then hopefully you'll now appreciate why Squenix aren't likely to be remaking the game in the future. FF7 was made during a different time, where graphical limitations meant that developers were able to create incredibly broad, wide open worlds with simple polygons, textures and 2D backgrounds. Game development is not the same now. It would probably take developers the same amount of time it took to create and model the entire cast list of the original game to re-design Cloud in HD, high-poly shininess. Recreating the entire world of Midgar to HD standard just isn't going to happen.

I've read this article, and in the interest of full disclosure, I'm a huge Shamus Young fan. In this case, however, I don;t agree with him.

There is an implicit (but not explicitly stated) necessary component to his argument: Square-Enix wouldn't sell enough copies of a remade Final Fantasy VII to recoup the development costs.

According to TFA:

Recently Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase stated that doing a proper re-make on the PS3 would be prohibitively - perhaps even absurdly - expensive and time consuming.

Shamus goes on to explain that it would essentially mean re-creating the game from scratch; that's really the entire point of his column. And it would take a lot of resources to create such a game. But the same could be said of all the recent entries in the franchise... and they've been prettty bad, IMO. The real question (that nobody seems to be interested in asking) is, "how would a remake sell?" The assumption is that the answer is "not enough." I'm not convinced that that's actually the case. I strongly suspect that the reality is that a remake would sell enough units to more than recoup development costs.

So, hypothetically, how could Square-Enix test the waters for a full-blown remake without blowing a wad of cash on the project? Well, how about an official re-release of the old PC version? No need to update the graphics, just a couple of bug fixes (those should be pretty well-documented) and updating it to run on modern hardware (easy). Distribute it digitally-only to keep costs down. Copies of the original are selling on eBay for over $100, so a re-release at (say) $30 should bring in enough revenue to (1) gauge how much actual interest there still is in the title; and (2) bring in some revenue.

If it doesn't sell, they won't have invested much in the project (and still would almost certainly recoup the costs of the bug fixes, etc.). If it does sell, but they're still not certain a full-blown remake is going to be worth the development costs, then release it episodically. Maybe just the first part of the game that only takes place within Midgar. No need to develop the rest of the world (and its monsters, NPCs, towns, vehicles, etc.). Charge $20 or $30 for that. If it sells, use the revenue to develop the rest of the game. And if it doesn't, then at least Square-Enix can say they tried, but fan support wasn't there.

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

Here is the thing with what is going on.The reason for this is that Square is still in a tight spot after their loss last year (Thanks to FF14 and it's bad performance). A remake of FFVII is just going to put their company at risk and knowing the fans, they will tear SE a new hole if even the slightest change is considered bad. Look what happened to the Mass Effect Fandom. Half the internet banded together and destroyed EA and Boiware. With FF7 fans being here much longer, what do you think is going to happen?

FFXIII was a way to try and get to a bigger demograph, not the hardcore fandom. It's become extremely hard for Square to find new fans these days without having to pander to the hardcore crowd. Thankfully, I was not in the hype of FF13 and didn't buy the game until 6 months after it was released. I played it as a regular player and thought it was decent in my opinion. Was it better than FF7? No, but I still had fun fighting monsters, leveling up and getting to know most of the characters.

I do believe it is possible for a FF7 remake, just not on the PS3 or Xbox though. Making a game that has graphics on par with FF13 and keeping every single tiny detail together is MUCH easier said than done. We would be in "Duke Nukeum Forever" long development if that were to happen. However, FF7 for the Nintendo 3DS would be a perfect opportunity for Square to compromise to the fans!

Nintendo remade Ocarina of Time for the 3DS and just updated the graphics while keeping true to the old fashion nostalgic feel of the N64 version. There were a few changes, but not very noticable. This could coincide with how SE has remade FF1-6 on handhelds as well. The only problem: Nintendo 3DS is not very popular ATM. SE just need to wait for the game concile to get popular and focus their attention on games like FF versus 13 and KH3 (and from what I hear a FF13-3 that 13-2 dangled in the Lightning DLC.)

Also, "Square-Enix wanted to make new games that it hoped would equal or even surpass the titans of ages past."
not the best thing to say Nomura, especially with how split the fandom is now these days.

 

[NinjaMatt2201]

Even apart from wanting to play a remake, I don't understand the decision. "We will not remake the Final Fantasy that will print money, but we will remake the shitty one that doesn't even have any nostalgia. (X)" Why? What reasonable answer could there be for that decision? It's just strange. I mean, how many times have Square re-released/remade I, II, IV, V, and VI? IV, V, VI, and VII are great candidates for an HD remake, but nobody wants X. Why? Are they trying to bankrupt? They've run the "of Mana" series into the ground without even remaking/re-releasing Secret of Mana, too. I mean, they have a 32 bit CD-ROM version that was intended for the unreleased Nintendo PlayStation just sitting in the vault. And a SNES sequel that was never released in the states.