User blog comment:MyOpsAreBlackerThenYours/Should shotguns become seconarys in BF3 or next Battlefield?/@comment-1080767-20120402061827

I don't think so. Shotguns have a strong purpose in all of the Battlefield games, and should not ever be considered 'secondary'. For example, what would Team Deathmatch look like?

There are situations in which shotguns have equal or greater efffectiveness than other primary weapons, whereas the current repository of sidearms does not have a selection like that, that is assuming that all primary weapons are equal (balance-wise) and all side arms are equal. Compare the SKS to the M1911, for example. The SKS has higher accuracy, magazine capacity, ammunition reserve, suppression, damage, and number of accessories, and is superior for all these significant advantages. So in this sense, shotguns are superior to pistols.

However, an inferior shotgun may be a viable option, similar to how the G18 behaves in comparison to the other side arms it exists alongside. I shotgun would also be unique, though it would have to be compact and in some way inefficient. A high-gauge ( 'high' as in a big number and therefore a small shell) shotgun with capacity expected of other side arms would be possible. Also a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun, though I don't know how likely it would be to see a design like that in modern combat between the USA and Russia.