Microsoft's Holiday Gift - A Year Warranty on Xbox 360

Christmas is round the corner and driving home profits at a zooming speed is what everyone wants. Hooking more and more customers to buy its Xbox 360 is what Microsoft is aiming at.

Not only did it announce astonishingly realistic graphics for Xbox and colourful farming game aimed squarely at children, but also an extended warranty of all Xbox 360 consoles from 90 days to full one year to benefit customers in United States and Canada.

The news came just three months after Microsoft announced free repair to all the Xbox 360 customers who had purchased the console before January 2006. They had also promised to repay back the money of people who had been charged for repairs.

One year warranty on Xbox 360 consoles is available throughout the world and Microsoft wanted to make United States and Canada join the brigade. The news also comes to celebrate this holiday season.

The warranty would apply to all would-be purchasers and to the people who already have Xbox 360 consoles and still within their first year of ownership.

So all you console users don’t have to pay from your pocket for a year if your console experiences some hardware issues. Not only this, the warranty is retroactive… so consumers who may have previously paid for an out-of-warranty Xbox 360 furbish up within one year of acquisition will be eligible for recompense of their console repair charges.

Microsoft announced that the customers who have paid from their pocket for repairs will get the reimbursement cheques for the amount of their console repair in approximately 10 weeks.

“Customer satisfaction is a central focus and priority for the Xbox 360 system,” said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “In addition to jaw-dropping features such as high-definition graphics, an amazing catalog of over 160 games, and social online and entertainment experiences on Xbox Live, the Xbox 360 system now offers this extended warranty upgrade. It is truly the industry’s most compelling home entertainment offering.”

Xbox 360, the successor to Microsoft's Xbox video game console, developed in collaboration with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS, is the first console to have a near- simultaneous launch in three major regions. It is also the first to offer wireless controller support at launch.

Competing against Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii, Xbox 360 offers gamers to compete online, download games and additional content. The moment Xbox 360 hit the market shelves on November 22, 2005 in the United States and Canada; December 2, 2005 in Europe and December 10, 2005 in Japan, it hooked a large number of customers. It completely sold out at its release and by the end of September 2006, Microsoft had sold 6 million consoles worldwide. It estimates to sell 10 million units by the end of 2006 and 13-15 million units by June 30, 2007.

In its first year on the market, the system launched in 36 countries, more countries than any console has launched in a single year. Xbox 360 became the fastest selling console in the Australian region and sold 100,000 units in just 7 months.

Customers who face any hardware issues or problems regarding the new policy, can clear their doubts at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/contact. They can also check their warranty status; find troubleshooting information for common issues and Xbox support contact information.