Why Final Fantasy 7 won’t come to the PS3
by Nike Okami
Just recently, we’ve had more blockbuster Final Fantasy-related news from the head honchos of Square-Enix. The rumour 
mill has been working overtime, but as with most recent snippets of information revealed by companies (I still haven’t forgiven Blizzard. Diablo 3 has me drooling, but the torture of waiting!) this one is highly unenlightening too.
The company annouced that, in their oddly titled DKS3713 private party after E3, they will make a major “Final Fantasy VII” announcement. Is it a remake of the legendary RPG, which some people bought into because of the pretty pre-rendered cut-scenes used as promotion material? Is it a sequel to Dirge of Cerberus, the broken and lampooned sequel to Advent Children, the cinematic CG extravaganza that threw away any semblance of a plot in the second half in favour of “Cloud Saves the Day… Somehow”? Or is it a Crisis Core-like prequel to FF7 that occurs after the former but before the latter (Devil May Cry could use a friend in the “prequel-sequel” department)?
Given that most people hope for the first option, let’s dispense with the pleasantries: Why would there be a Final Fantasy VII remake from Squaresoft at this crucial juncture for the company?
Okay, yes. I admit it. Just a simple graphical update to the game would be a win-win solution for Square-Enix. And these are the same people who decided to completely overhaul Final Fantasy IV for the DS, so there’s no fear the company will simply provide a new graphical shell alone. We’ll see some gameplay updates, new features, voice-acting maybe. Those who didn’t play the game but buy into the fact that it was a stellar title will no doubt go for this. New audience satisfied. Old audience satisfied. Recover that investment on Spirits Within?
When it was still known as Square-soft, the announcement came as far back as 2001 that we’d be seeing a remake of the game on the PS2.
Seven years, and one PS3 “tech demo” later, and we even haven’t gotten Duke Nukem Forever, forget FFVII Redux. Why does Square-Enix now feel the need for it? To build hype. Why would they possibly want to create such immense hype?
So they could do the same thing they’ve always done: Attract enough attention so that when the actual title, which is usually an off-shoot of the main game as history has proved, is announced enough publicity can be generated. Outrage and shock attract more attention in this highly digitized age of news. Then, there’s the reams of speculation over which FFVII characters appear and in what way. New audience curious. Old audience begrudgingly accepting. Cycle repeats. Earn enough to make another Spirits Within?When you look at the number of projects Square-Enix currently has on its hands, with Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII consuming the lion’s share of resources, could the company possibly allocate enough manpower towards a full-fledged remake? This is discounting other projects for the PS3, X-Box 360, DS, PSP and Wii, rumours of a Kingdom Hearts 3, and ping ponging rumours of all Versus XIII resources being concentrated towards finishing FFXIII first. Updating Final Fantasy VII for the PS3 on a true remake scale is no child’s play, and to say that we’d expect one by 2010 is to assume three things.
Firstly, Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be out before then.
Secondly, FF Versus XIII will not be a venerable juggernaut on the Square-Enix marketing menu.
Finally, to discount the shelf-life of Final Fantasy XIII which seems to be heading for an early 2009 release.
Could Square-Enix be so eager to throw attention away from it’s Fabula Novela Crystallis project? Could it possibly pull off this many A-List offerings and then throw in a PS3 FFVII remake for good measure? Wouldn’t it be safer and more rational to offer some kind of alternate franchise in its place?
Simply put, will there be a Final Fantasy VII remake announced next month by Square-Enix? No.No disrespect to Final Fantasy VII (opening humorous banter about the franchise’s past offerings aside) but while we wait and see until this August at DKS3713, all factors point towards anything but a PS3 remake at this point.
Trackbacks and Pingbacks
Trackback Address »
[…] Source I guess we have to wait until next month to find out. s […]
Pingback by » Why Final Fantasy 7 wont come to the PS3 — July 13, 2008 @ 5:26 am
[…] right, and now that the event is officially over, we would now like to say with full confidence what was said nearly a month ago: There is no Final Fantasy VII remake or sequel or anything remotely continuing the mythos present […]
Pingback by Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read » Archives » DKS3713 Over - No FFVII Remake Coming — August 4, 2008 @ 10:48 am
[…] The much-hyped Final Fantasy VII announcement at that fabulous function with the bizarrest naming (DKS3713, you are permanently logged in my head) doured quite a few avid fans…after we doured the hopes of the majority of them before the event. […]
Pingback by Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read » Archives » FFXIII Demo - Lasts Long, Really Long — August 17, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Comments
10 comments | Leave your comment »
Jul 12th, 2008 at 8:33 pm | #
There is a FF VII HD port to PSN in the works.
Wait and see.
Jul 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm | #
“And these are the same people who decided to completely overhaul Final Fantasy IV for the DS, so there’s no fear the company will simply provide a new graphical shell alone”
Yes, but these are also the same people who just announced a visually untouched version of Chrono Trigger for the DS.
Anyway, good article. A FFVII remake would sell like…. what? Water in the desert? Air in Mars? I dunno. It would pretty much end the console wars. But with other projects on the line, a FFVII is unlikely… at least for now.
Jul 12th, 2008 at 10:19 pm | #
what an idiot. Nothing is worst than a person complaining and trying to kill the hope of other people. Let them have their hope, and keep your logic to yourself.
Jul 13th, 2008 at 2:26 am | #
no need to shatter dreams
Jul 13th, 2008 at 4:33 am | #
Yeah…Final Fantasy doesn’t need hype. It’s one of the biggest franchises going around. Any Final Fantasy product will sell.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is in the best interests of both Sony: To move PS3s and SquareEnix to make SQEillions of dollars/yen whatever.
As for the Remake in itself. It’s coming. Square isn’t continuously referring to the remake constantly - without denying it any more - for no reason. It’s coming, it’s just a while away.
Jul 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm | #
While you make some good points, there is no “factors” pointing towards an absolute No. They could announce the re-make but have no definite release date at the time. They could announce it, build hype for FFXIII and say that depending on the sales of FFXIII, they will decide on the re-make buzzing the world to buy in and make FFXIII a top-seller trying to persuade Square Enix to give in. Its not absolute that they’ll remake FFVII for PS3; but its not absolute that they won’t. They didn’t spend 3 months on the Tech Demo footage just to show it off; that work is saved somewhere and for a purpose I can almost guarantee.
Jul 15th, 2008 at 8:47 pm | #
He does not shatter dreams.
He’s just realistic.
I don’t think that there will be a remake for the ps3. Even though this is what I desire.
It’s simple: Square doe NOT need the remake right now.
Someone said, that everything from ff7 would be a top seller.
They WILL make a remake but not now.
There are a lot of new fans of ff7. They’ve acutally never played the original game, they are fans of genesis and angeal and kadaj … and this is the aduience square is attracted to.
They will serve the old-school-fans later.
Because they make enough money with all the ff7 spin-offs, which I truly don’t like.
Sure I played Crisis Core, I watched Advent Children and I TRIED to play Dirge Of cerberus, but I still believe that dirge of cerberus is a joke of square enix.
They sit in their expensive offices and laugh about all of the idiot fans which bought dirge of cerberus. This game is shit.
So what I wanted to say was, that the author is right.
They attract attention, everyone thinks “oh yes a remake” and than:
Hey here is a new game with the turks you can play reno and rude!!!!
wow *spit*
Leave a comment
Comment Guidelines:
You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted.
Email addresses will never be published.