Those of you considering taking the plunge into the wonderful and frightening world of Xbox 360 but who are worried by stories of large-scale hardware failures, fret no more! Microsoft reckons that all such problems are now a thing of the past and that a shining, fault-free future now beckons…

A cynic might highlight the timing of such an announcement, what with the Xbox 360 Elite price drop (apparently) incoming. But it’s comforting news all the same, as Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg tells Gamespot.com:

"I can tell you the consoles we're making today have lower-heat chips and better cooling, and we're seeing fantastic quality in those consoles today,"

"I think we've made it clear we stand by the quality of our product and we will make it right by fixing the problem at no extra cost to you. But at the same time, we've been working hard to make improvements in the products we're currently making, so I really feel like most of this is well behind us."

So there it is. Buy with confidence if/when the Elite becomes cheaper. Or, at the very least, don’t worry too much about Red Rings of Death or E74 failures ‘cos Microsoft’s got your back – they promise to fix all such faults for FREE within three years of console purchase. Very decent of them too.