As the headline say how long does it take to R & D home console?

How long to R & D handheld console?

Any idea's.

There is no set time limit ti R&D anything.

You could R&D together a pretty looking PC based "console" in under a month. The problem with that is it will throw RRODs and E74s

@Honkeytonk Monkey

yes I agree ha though i was refering to a next gen console that has had indepth R & D for release with some launch games not trying to start fan fire here but i do see your point as far as time goes.

Pretty much the length of a generation from start to finish. I remember reading about the CELL way back in 2001 or 2002, and how it was going to change the world. I remember reading back in 2007 that Microsoft was designing the CPU for the next-box in-house. Early designs for the DS go back as far as the late 90's

 Agreed

It's not as if a company fires all their hardware employees for a couple of years every generation. These are permanent employees that are constantly working on the next console, with perhaps slight breaks for working on peripherals, depending on which aspect of hardware they work in

Nintendo consoles are R&D'd for 5 years or more. As soon as Wii launched they would have been starting work on the N6 (Nintendo's 6th console) and Iwata has said they're always working on the next console.

I'd expect Sony and Microsoft to be in a similar position although Nintendo are a games only company so they have more focus on future hardware early.

A peace of string is longer than a war of string, but that's all I know on the matter.