Each year in June, gaming developers and the media travel to Los Angeles to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3. This is the biggest news event in the video game industry and reveals the most important announcements.

The most talked about moment of this year’s conference was a shocking trailer announcing “Final Fantasy VII” would be getting an high-definition remake, or upgraded graphics to meet modern standards.

To the average gamer this may not seem like a big deal. HD remakes are plentiful and tend to not be big news in the video game world. This one is different.

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Square Soft’s, now called Square-Enix, “Final Fantasy VII” is one of the most iconic, popular and influential role-playing games of all time. Launched Jan. 31, 1997, it took what was strictly a 2-D genre and changed it to 3-D. By today’s standards it is a very ugly game, but the 1997 game looked great in its full 3-D graphics.

This set the standard for future role-playing games.

The quality and popularity of “Final Fantasy VII” made it a good candidate for remastering. However, the game’s quality is not the only factor surrounding the excitement of this announcement.

At E3 2005, Sony was displaying its new console, Playstation 3, by releasing a demonstration showing the console’s graphics capability with a scene of “Final Fantasy VII.”

Fans of the series exploded with glee and took it as a sign they would be getting the 1997 classic on their new console, only bigger and better than before. Unfortunately, it was only for show and the game was not being remade.

The demonstration was a tease because the idea was flaunted in front of fans but seemingly had no real chance of coming to fruition. The developers always seemed to deny working on or wanting to work on an HD remake of the game. Taking that into consideration, fans’ hope for the release of this game waned.

But then it completely and unexpectedly happened.

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At Sony’s press conference this year, a trailer was revealed followed by an announcement that “Final Fantasy VII” would be getting its remake. To be dramatic, people went from desperate to hopeful.

The gaming world exploded. Every major gaming website had the news posted on their front page.

The interesting part about this is that it was only an announcement. Usually big stories from events like E3 are when a game is shown extensively, with detailed information about it and a concept of how it plays. This announcement was just a trailer. They gave no other information, not even an estimated release date. Everyone still lost their minds.

It just goes to show you how beloved this game is.

I personally cannot wait to get my hands on this remastering of one of gaming’s all time greatest games on my modern console.