In light of the recent rumors that Xbox 360 failure rates may be as high as 33% Microsoft has revised the 360 warranty for the second time this year. The previous warranty update gave free repairs to all 360 owners for one year from the purchase of the console, this update extends coverage to three years from the date of purchase. Peter Moore explains:

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge-including shipping-for three years from the console's purchase date.

The new warranty is retroactive, too -- if your console has died with the three red lights in the last three years and you had to pay for repairs, Microsoft will be mailing you a check.

I'm glad to see that Microsoft is taking these issues seriously -- I just hope that they're also working on nailing down the specific causes of the hardware failures and not just exchanging broken systems for soon-to-be-broken systems.