It all comes down to this. A remake of Final Fantasy VII for the PS3 isn't going to be like remaking FFVI for the GBA or FFIV for the DS.
PS3 quality games require a lot of money and a large development team. It would, in terms of staff requirements, basically be the same as making an entirely new game. New graphics, new camera works, new programming, new translations, new voice acting, new music recordings, new just about everything. Especially if they transition it into full 3D, which I'm sure they would.
If they devote their dev teams to something like that, they won't be able to work on new games. And for the foreseable future, they have their plates full with new games.
Maybe when Fabula Nova Crystallis is complete, possibly when KH3 is out of the way, we'll see a FFVII remake, but I can't possibly see it coming any sooner than that.
Edit: Since nobody else jumped on this, I'm gonna have to.
[quote author=V link=topic=603.msg24143#msg24143 date=1235776567]
I don't really have particularly high expectations for FFXIII mostly because I don't have much evidence that Nomura is capable of creating games I find particularly interesting. Most of my favourite titles in the series were ones in which he didn't have a particularly large role in, so it's pretty safe to extrapolate from his large role in this one that I won't like it as much.[/quote]
Nomura's involvement with FFXIII doesn't go much deeper than character designs. He's working on FF Versus XIII, his own game, and the first in the series he's directing. FFXIII is being done by the core FF team, Versus is by the AC and KH teams.
Aside from that, Nomura's only been "pretty involved" in the development of FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX, with minor involvement in FFV.
The level of his involvement varies from game to game. It needs to be understood that game design is a community project and everyone has some say and input.
Nomura started working with FFIV, I believe as a debugger.
FFV, he worked on monster designs and battle graphics, and had some minor influence on the story, I believe. One of his suggestions for the ending was taken into consideration, IIRC.
FFVI, he was the graphics director, and was in charge of adapting Amano's designs into the chibi artwork I'm sure you've seen in instruction books and on the internet, which was used as the basis for the game's sprites. He had more influence on this game, submitting lots of suggestions, some of which were taken and others were not. He also designed both Shadow and Setzer, which were brought into the game.
FFVII is where he really started to have a major influence. Though he was officially just the character designer, he also worked closely with Kitase and Nojima to develop Sakaguchi's original ideas and on the plot as a whole.
FFVIII, Nomura and Kitase went back and forth brainstorming via email, and he came up with the basic concept of an "academy feel" which evolved into the Gardens. Nomura did the character designs, and this time they were done in his more preferred "realistic" style, as opposed to the chibi/anime style of FFVII. He originally designed Fuujin and Raijin for FFVII but they were ultimately dropped, and he also designed Edea before FFVII, based on Amano's style, perhaps as a potential character design for FFVI.
I'm not really sure how deeply he was involved in FFX, as I've never really made much of an effort to research it, though I'm sure his involvement was similar to FFVII and FFVIII, mostly focused on character design but with input on the scenario and direction.