@Chrono'99: In one sense, that's unanswerable: there's always something better that can be done with money. Including the money in your pocket. Somehow, I don't think you give every cent in your possession that you don't need for immediate survival to charity--I know I certainly don't. You spend some of it on frivolity, just like the rest of us.
So the real issue here is that you think that $32 million is too much money to do something relatively frivolous with like buy out a video game's IP. Which is fine, but you have to remember that that number, if not chosen entirely at random, is still not likely to be Square Enix's exact asking price. So, consider, how low would that price have to go before you would consider it worth it? One million? Ten thousand? One hundred? A bent nickel? At some number, it does become worthwhile, right? So without knowing the number, how are we supposed to make a decision?
@KebreI: Cart before the horse there a bit, I think, but I'll try to answer anyway.
Given the IP, if we want a true sequel game, we go looking for real business-type (not fundraised/donated) funding. And we look for cost-cutting measures. A lot of the expense in developing a modern game comes from the visuals. Minimize the FMVs/fancy motion capture/other lagniappe, and we save some money. Make careful choices about publicity methods--also very expensive--and we could save a lot more. Heck, we could even hire the Dream Team to work on it if we wanted to and could afford it.
$2-$3 million--and it's hard to get business funding in amounts that small--buys you a year's development time with actual qualified and salaried employees, if you spend it appropriately. Sell the finished game at $10 a copy. The novelty and relatively low price should move enough units for it to break even.
Anyway, I'm signing off for the night. If things haven't changed here significantly in the morning, I'll file this under "ideas whose time has not yet come" and stop replying to the thread, because the last thing I want to do is promote more nastiness and division here.