I understand folk's disdain for shooters. Alot of the big budget games that dominate the headlines have some degree of a shooting mechanic in the design. However, as many have stated here, its a little premature to write the game off as we haven't seen hide nor hair of it yet.
While I am definitely an advocate of game diversity, and feel its beneficial for companies to embrace that approach, I also want dev teams to work on projects that they are passionate and enthusiastic about. I get the idea behind Sony's missing genres...genres we feel could potentially strengthen their lineup (if done correctly). But just casting a genre (RPG) on teams who don't want it, not suited for it, just because we've seen that they are talented in other genres doesn't make much sense either. It might aid in not only making for a poor game, but causing the studio to lose talent as people ship out for some projects they find more engaging.
Having said that, I do like speculation. I think its almost 0% chance this game doesn't have multiplayer. Unless it is some big huge game. And when i think multiplayer, the only thing I've figured most devs know how to multiplayer-ize is shooters. Sony looks at their portfolio and removes projects that end up being too similar...so that should still be in effect. With the fall of Zipper (Socom and any future military shooter), the migration of Insomniac (Resistance), I could see them feeling as though they could handle another shooter if SSM really wanted to make one. These devs are privy to other games in the lineup as well. So a Starhawk clone doesn't make sense. I don't think those guys are interested in modern military-based combat. They've been involved in fantasy games for forever. Their art teams are likely going to want the challenge of world creation. I don't think these guys are going to for a scale as large as Skyrim. And we know they like challenge and spectacle. They've likely been hearing critiques on linearity in GoW, so I'm betting they address that thru open-world or multiplayer. I say these guys are gearing up for something closer to Bioshock/Dishonored or Borderlands. With various Sony teams working on PS4 (I think UC3 guys are on PS3 development now, GG 2nd team, Media Molecule I bet), I'm putting money on this game being on PS4. T