Microsoft has announced that it has officially ceased support for all out-of-warranty original Xboxes. Finished. Kaput. No more support for you, Mr Broken Xbox!

“On March 2, 2009, service repairs for Original Xbox video game systems for which the Warranty has expired will no longer be available. Any other technical support, documents, and content, however, will continue to be available to all our customers,” says the Xbox support website, haughtily.

“Technical support documents and content will be available online. Our Web sites will host a wealth of previous and new how-to, troubleshooting, and configuration content that has been revised and updated to meet our customer needs and current support model.” it concludes.

All of which would seem to suggest that if your first-gen Xbrick breaks down in future it’s going to be up to you - suitably equipped with a soldering iron, a couple of lengths of two-be-four and a fistful of elastic bands - to sort it out. Good luck with that.

And speaking of future, those of you still piloting the old skool ‘Box may be interested to learn that a new generation of hardware has come to pass in recent years. It’s called the Xbox 360, it’s brilliant and Microsoft is offering you a chance to join the party:

"If you have an Original Xbox console that is in Warranty that requires a repair, you will be able to submit an exchange request for an upgrade to an Xbox 360 gaming console online," says the support website.

It’s a kind offer and we urge any luddite last-gen gamers to take advantage of it a.s.a-flipping-p. Don’t expect Microsoft to upgrade you for free, though. Meantime the old Xbox makes an excellent paperweight. Or an extendable drinks mat…