In an open letter from Peter More, Microsoft has announced that it is extending the warranties for consoles experiencing the infamous three flashing red lights. The extended warranty will cover new and previously sold XBox 360 units that are affected by what Microsoft describes as general hardware failure.

It was reported last week on several large technology blogs that the failure rate of Microsoft’s newest gaming consoles was possibly as high as 33%. Of the 6 people I know with XBox 360 systems, 3 have had to send theirs back in to date because of hardware failure and one that didn’t send in his broken console because Microsoft wanted to charge him $150.00 to fix it.

It is nice to see Microsoft finally admitting to this problem and doing what is right for the consumer. The XBox 360 is by far my favorite of the big 3 right now and this move will help Microsoft save some face in the gaming community.

Click here for the link to Microsoft’s XBox 360 site to read the letter for yourself