Have FPS games really been so dominant this generation? I don't think they've even come close to the level of market share that platformers used to hold. We've had plenty of big third-person games this gen, such as Uncharted, God of War, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Dead Space, and Red Dead Redemption. Take out the yearly CoD installments and it's not like every other game being produced is FPS. I think people overstate FPS games simply because of CoD/Halo sales numbers.

This gen has had a ton of variety. I've been very happy with that, especially the rise of the wRPG and the clever indie games. The only negative has been the period where Japan went into copycat mode, though recently they've done a lot better. Honestly, I think we're going to see even more variety, as online networks have really opened up a lot of possibilities.

Well, I meant "FPS" in terms of dominant genre.  I would say, next generation, the top titles are likely to be open world.  I would say about open-world, that it can work with lots of genres and time periods, and so on.

And as far as FPS goes, it is also a bit broad here to also cover the likes of Gears of War.  In short, lining up aa crosshair and shooting something.  You zoom into First-person mode when aiming in Gears.  Uncharted also has this, but really focuses on doing an update Tomb Raider style game.

You see next gen not being dominated by open world games where you explore, and the top selling games, besides the usual suspects, will be linear driven affairs?

Nope. As time goes on though it will become one of the only genres that matters.

Open-world isn't a genre, it's a design philosophy. You can have open world FPS, TPS, RPGs, RTS, Turn-based strategy, and pretty much any other genre within the open-world framework.

So it's going to be far more common than the FPS was this gen.

maybe. can't say what's next, but i think shooters are dying.

You just described the fallout games. 

No.

How about as a dominant and essential attribute needed for a game in order for it to sell next generation, some exceptions to this of course.  Just top selling games next gen will primarily will be open world.

I hope the genre dies. (well, don't want to be mean so make that almost dies)