How long did the PS3 take to be made?

Answer 1

Over two years depending when you start the development time. PS3 models exist as early as the January 2005 Cell Evaluation System and the PS3 Evaluation System for software Vendors made from March 2005 through December 2005 and others from before the consumer PS3 was released in November 11 2006.

Answer 2

The Playstation 3 was made with parts that are right now in stock yet back when the PS3 was started they had to develop the parts or hardware and then write the software to run the PS3. The actual people started moving PS2 ideals forward once they knew they could not meet the release deadline for the PS2 back in 1998 and 1999. Some of the ideal were part of later PS2 models and some were used by the next model the PS3. By January 2005 Shreck (a PS3 Early Model) was used to develop the final models that were released on November 11 2006. But it could be argued that Shreck was the PS3. Anyway some of my knowledge comes from secrets of the PS3 found at the related link PlayStation 3 Secrets