While no remake to retrofit the dated original classic has been announced, it has nevertheless been the subject of mass speculation for years and as such deserves a place where all the bullshit news and forum discussions can be collected and dissected.
The editors at EGM magazine (June 2006, issue 204) have taken it upon themselves to confirm the existence of a Final Fantasy VII remake, due exclusively for the PS3 next year. This is in light of Yoshinori Kitasi's commments, explicitly to EGM mind you, that a remake would take five years to complete, as well as a direct assertion from Square Enix that "there will be no Final Fantasy VII remake".
Speaking in an interview with American magazine EGM, Final Fantasy director Yoshinori Kitase spoke out about a potential Final Fantasy VII remake, saying that if Square Enix were to seriously pursue such a project, it would require a staff of 300 and take 5 years. Nomura commented as well, stating that even if the team were to come together to produce a new version of the game, the various members are currently too caught up in their own projects to be able to reserve any time for it. EGM speculated that the possibility of a FF7 remake lies out of reach as long as the next PS3 game to be created is Final Fantasy XIII.1
It would appear that the Square Enix Party 2005's compilation trailer featuring clips from all the upcoming titles also showed the same "Final Fantasy VII Technical Demonstration" that we saw at E3. This of course means absolutely nothing, and certainly not that the company is in fact considering actually developing a remake of the title for the Playstation 3. Right?1
During the Playstation 3 unveiling at E3, Square Enix showed a realtime demo of a remade Final Fantasy VII intro sequence (with the overview of Midgar and Cloud somersaulting off the train) running in-game (supposedly), and visually styled like Advent Children. This obviously leads to speculation that there may be a Final Fantasy VII remake in the works for PS3, as fans have eagerly demanded for the past several years. Don't expect any confirmation at this point though.
EGM's rumor mill mentioned a Devil May Cry-style action game featuring Final Fantasy VII's Cloud may be appearing for PS2 later this year.1
