Xbox gets a longer warranty

updated 3:08 p.m. ET Dec. 27, 2006

REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. is extending its warranty on the Xbox 360 video game console to one year from the previous limit of 90 days.

The change announced Friday applies to future and present owners. (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft NBC Universal joint venture.)

The one-year warranty matches what Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co., already offer on their latest video game consoles, the PlayStation 3 and the Wii.

Microsoft said it extended the deal to make its U.S. and Canadian warranty consistent with what it offered in many other countries.

Customers who already have paid repair bills on Xbox consoles that they've owned for less than one year will automatically get refunds, Microsoft said in a statement.

This autumn, Microsoft acknowledged that a glitch in the Xbox's online update system damaged a small number of customers' consoles before the problem was quickly fixed. At least one customer has sued over the incident.

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