There are probably over a hundred different component suppliers for a console, and each one is competitively bid upon so needs to be prototyped and tested. The more advanced components won't even exist yet when the process is begun so you have to work with simulations and promises.
Then they design how the components will fit together on the board and connect to the case and external ports etc
Then they need to choose which OEMs will build the thing and how their production line will be set up to receive each of the parts and integrate them, while having the thing cost only a few hundred dollars per unit.
The longest part is validation. You have a hacked together working board in the lab, but now you've got to make it mass producible, with a 99.99%+ pass rate for every one of a hundred components in their new environment (space, heat, power, electrical susceptibility) so that the vast majority of consoles coming off the production line work for 5+ years in possibly terrible conditions (cramped in a corner with no ventilation).
Not spending enough time (a year plus) on validation between on-paper 'final' hardware and first production is what gave us RROD.
What takes the most time overall is getting a hundred companies with completely different processes, ideas and expectations to work together across time zones.
Source: Dad works in a similar high-tech industry with the same process.
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