Definitely a false rumour. I’m sure the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini will still be chucking out big V8’s and V10’s for years to come, and all power to them.
Smaller turbocharged petrol engines are really becoming popular with manufacturers since with a turbocharger you are essentially varying displacement on demand. So a 1 litre engine with a turbocharger can make the power of a 2 litre engine under 1 bar of boost, but when cruising and not spinning the turbo, it’s only a 1 litre. The only issue with this is that below the boost threshold they are essentially torqueless - we have a new Transit van in work with a small (but boosted to high heaven) engine, and when trying to pull away, particularly when towing, it is completely gutless until circa 2000rpm, at which point it just takes off.
I’ll stick with my firebreathing turbo 2.5 straight 5 for now though :)