I always thought that the announcement would come just prior to when manufacturing starts. Because after it rolls off the assembly line, someone will take a picture of it and leaks it on the internet.

There is some info on that Nintendo's contract manufacturer is investing big in tooling next quarter. People have made the assumption that's why the announcement is possibly September/early October based on that.

Thing is investing in tooling and using it are two different things. Because that investments happens next quarter does not mean manufacturing would start next quarter. Time will be needed to install and test the new assembly line.

I guess, we just have to wait and see.

They say September or October but to do that, would indicate the release would be during the holidays (November or December) - announcing it now but releasing it next year would cannibalize Switch's sales. (Also they already confirmed that the successor wont come out in 2024).

So what I think will happen is it will be teased (system not revealed or the name will be revealed) in a way that makes it look like Nintendo is looking into the future.

Actual reveal will occur early 2025 (Jan or Feb) with a March release - similar to what happened with Switch.

I hope they reveal sooner than later. I'm curious to see total ram, clock speeds when docked. Not that it matters given I'm buying a Switch 2 without a second thought.

Yeah, dont really care for the hardware specifics - I'm more into the software side - b/c being the main case in point.

If the rumors are true - I'm glad they arent going a innovating route where they make a unique design where it can easily break b/c of any kind.

Just stick with the Switch brand with the hybrid gaming style - improve on it.

Doing that, eShop games and even NSO can be transferred over easily so it wouldnt suffer the same fate as the 3DS/WiiU eshop or VC titles.

ROFL, there was no cherry picking.

All the DS games you mentioned are included in the MetaScore list of 209 DS games:

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/ds/all/all-time/metascore/?releaseYearMin=1958&releaseYearMax=2024&platform=ds&page=1

Or do you expect me to screenshot and spam over 200 DS games and over 950 Switch games?

Just look it up on https://www.metacritic.com instead of posting crappy comments!

And the DS had some great niche games without a MetaScore? The Switch has also hundreds of those.

Any gaming platform has some great niche games without a MetaScore.

Oh I didn't take it as a dig, sorry if it came across that way.

While it's true most of their games don't push technical limits, I just think there are some that do, at least relative to the hardware's capabilities. Considering they're running on a 2015 mobile chipset, stuff like Tears of the Kingdom, Metroid Prime Remastered, and Luigi's Mansion 3 are pretty stunning achievements and must have taken a huge amount of effort and talent.

It won’t, a lot of people have unrealistic expectations and will be very disappointed.

Really depends on clock speed and amount of ram.  One of the reasons I want an announcement is to know for sure what the device will be.  I would expect 112 gb/s with 12 gb of ram to be significantly different than 88 gb/s (underlocked) at 8 gb ram.  Same is true if by chance Nintendo goes 16 gb ram.  Lots of unknowns so it is really hard to tell.  I think porting is relatively easy (at least easier) if the S2 is 16 gb, but 8 gb could be problematic.  Don't get me wrong, ports are possible either way, but 8 gb likely would need more customization (time/money).  To be clear I think the 12 gb rumors are fair and that doesn't strike me as unrealistic, but with Nintendo you never know.    

At the end of the day, really depends on the price point Nintendo is trying to hit.  Nintendo doesn't typically take a loss on hardware.  And Steam Deck and Rog Ally are all $550+.  Personally, I don't see Nintendo going above $400 for the S2, but that is speculation.  Others disagree and expect $500.  

I think you've got caught up into specs too much - even if SW1 to SW2 jump in performance ends up to be only as PS4 to PS5 jump (and all the guesstimates point that it will be bigger), we have the same situation as with Switch 1, expect this time around big publishers know Switch 2 will sell from the start.

Good specs are always nice for easy porting, but I doubt they'll be deciding factor whether or not SW2 gets current gen ports.

Good chance you are right.  Games are quite scalable these days.  Even Ragnarök, per minimum requirements, can run on a 1060.