I think David Jaffe was Susan Arendt's "total cock" developer who always comes off as an asshole (ref: escapist podcast)... or at least a likely suspect.
That said, there is some truth to his words. I remember someone (not Jaffe) saying that shooters were a bit like making musicals; in that whatever story you're trying to tell has to constantly break into song and dance routines (or for shooters, gunfights).
It makes it much harder to do something creative with the story as compared to other genres, because of the necessity of a context to support that recurring core scenario. It's understandable, then, that the same old "War Men", "Honor of Duty", "Battle Guy", "Desert Fight" tropes make the most plausible backdrop for these incessant gun battles while simultaneously capitalizing on what is presently topping the sales charts.
But first person games, even with shooting bits are far from played out... Arguably, many ideas have yet to even be attempted or tapped. Sure Mirrors Edge and Brink confirm that first person platforming is a bad mix, but all sorts of other weird and wonderful titles like Fallout, Skyrim, Natural Selection, Tribes, Firefall, Hawken, Love, Minecraft and Amnesia all stand as testaments that you can take the FPerspective to new and interesting places.
Cool times ahead (and behind):