Truth to be told, I don't know a lot about the pre-Ps2 Final Fantasies. I'll leave it to someone else to analyse how much it will sell.

My point was, remakes don't outsell new iterations.

I didn't say I wouldn't buy 13 if I already had a PS3, I said it's a tentative purchase until it proves to be good. And it'd have to be really, really good to get me to buy a PS3 (and, you know, not on 360) while I have no doubt an FF7 remake would meet my quality standards. IF something got me to buy a next gen system and FF13 is good, of course I'll buy it, but it pales in comparison to the excitement FF7 would cause.

Also, while my evidence being anecdotal, there's really no other sort. There's no way to gauge just how much more excited people would be about a theoretical FF7 release when no one has seen a single hair of it, but what I have seen is a distinct lack of excitement for FF13. People cared when FFX was coming out, nobody seemed to talk about much other than FF7 after the TV ads started all the way until FF8 was released, yet I never hear anyone talk about FF13. It barely even gets talked about on forums except when people ask much better/worse an FF7 release would do or how it's not exclusive anymore. FF7 was the peak of the series, and to this day I still come across more conversation about it than the upcoming FF13.

I've already said FF13 will sell more, but if both were on the same systems I can't see it being by much and if FF13 turns out to be bad it could easily be surpassed.

Yeah, but how many games get remakes on consoles?  DQ5 did, and it went from 2.8 million for the original to 1.65 million for the PS2 remake (and another 1.2 on the DS). 

Resident Evil 1 sold over 5 million and the REmake sold less than 1, but then again it was on a failing console that no one bought for mature games.  Code Veronica X, though, outsold CV by 2:1, assuming you count it as more than a port.  If nothing else, though, it shows how badly RE has failed when not associated with the PS brand.

Other than those games, I can't even think of a console game taht got a remake on another console.  Certainly not one that sold 10 million copies the first time through.  FF7 way outsold FF3 and FF4 and those remake are easily 2 million unit sellers (though 4 was probably stiffled by 3 a bit, which would explain its weaker sales) as you have pointed out.  And that's with virtually no advertising.  Print, sure, but you're not seeing those games on TV ads much.  Yet you wouyld see an FF7 remake everywhere. 

It's more loved than 3 + 4, it'd get more advertising, and a whole hell of a lot of people are already clamoring for it even as they turn around and insult SE for the deluge of pre-FF7 remakes/rereleases.  Only selling 2.5 million is preposterous.

A good chunck of 360 owners owned a PS1... the Remake would do just as well on either console

My point is... if you buy FF7 and a PS3... you will likely buy FF13 as well.  Thereby couting out your purchase towards the sale.

Which is my point. Any FF7 sale... even if the demand was huge.... would largely be a FF13 sale as well... making it so 13 would always come out on top.

Also if FF13 is bad.  It will still rank in the high 80s. Final Fantasy X-2 got an 85.

Also there is way to get nonanectodotal evidence to support a theoretical FF7 release.

It's called research using the scientific standards.

Anectodal evidence isn't such because people tell it to you.  It's as such because the data collected is done in an unscientific way.

Even for an Internet forum, this is a pointless and inane topic. We're being asked to compare the sales of a game that isn't finished yet, and we know relatively little about, to the sales of a game that doesn't even exist, and probably won't ever exist. Good luck with that! All that the answers are revealing are each poster's personal feelings about the games in question - i.e., it's meaningless to get leo-j's opinions on this subject, because to him a PS3 exclusive remake of Final Fantasy 7 would be the most perfect game that could possibly exist. Nothing is based on facts, just personal fantasies.

Equally silly question: which would sell more, a Wii remake of Ocarina of Time, or a new Wii Zelda game that we have no information on? Have fun with that...

No way it would outsell it, most of Final Fantasy VII's original buyers have grown up and moved away from gaming I am guessing. I am saying it wouldn't set the world on fire like it did the first time. I know it is hard to believe when all you read are online gamesites like this, but you are reading comments and chatting with the only people who would more than likely still buy it. I would be on the buying side guaranteed.

Come on.  I think my line of reasoning was rather well thought out.

I mean a number of FF7 people have invariably moved on...

most FF7 loving people most likely would want it's spirtual successor... making it extra hard for 7 to win

plenty of people would look down on remakes (they have before.)

even bad FF games get good reviews and sales

You're overestimating the likelihood that I'd buy FF13.  From what I've seen I'm just not interested.  I'm more likely to buy FFV13, then I'd want otehr stuff like GT5 and MGS4 and eventually my gaming dollars will run out.  Heck, they'll run out fast.  FF13 is still pretty low on an already short list of games I'd consider purchasing.

Also, the reason why finding non-anecdotal evidence is impossible is not because there aren't methods to do it but because the logistics of such a project are immense.  It's simply not worth the money or effort that would have to be invested to get it done, especially when the general results are already well known.  Some people will by hyped about one, some the other, and the largest group would be excited about both.  Finding out the difference between the first group is relatively pointless, so the people with the will and the way simply won't.  However, the fact the FF13 will be multiplat and the proposed FF7 is not makes it very likely that the latter would be the higher seller on the PS3 only.  In fact, thanks to that factor there's virtually no chance I'd get FF13 on the PS3 to begin with, yet I'd still buy a PS3 just for FF7.  On the flipside, even when FF13 was still exclusive I never considered buying the PS3 for it.

The average gamer is somehting liek 33 years old.  The idea that people grow up and move past gaming died a decade ago.  If a person was in their 20's when they played it the first time, they are still well within the average gamer age and if they were in their mid-teens then they are still in the biggest, most lucrative demographic gaming has.  Plus, the game is 11 years old already, and there are bound to be millions of gamers who never played it but might want to give it a try just to see what the fuss is about.  Not all will buy new copies, of course, but those people exist.  It's not like the gameplay and story aren't going to be as good as the first time, so it has a lot of merits to sell by.