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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On the Net:

Xbox support: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/contact