Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts is shaping up to be his most dangerous yet in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix™. Fearing that Hogwarts' venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about the return of Voldemort in order to undermine his power, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the students.

Microsoft on Thursday announced that it will expand its global Xbox 360 warranty coverage. Any Xbox 360 customer who experiences a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights will now be covered by a three year warranty from date of purchase. All other existing Xbox 360 warranty policies remain in place.

As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures.  Having identified a number of factors which can cause general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft has made improvements to the console and is enhancing its Xbox 360 warranty policy for existing and new customers.

The Wall Street Journal says that Microsoft leads its competitors in the market for the latest generation of games hardware, in part because it began selling the Xbox 360 a year before them. In the US, retailers have sold 5.6 million Xbox 360s to consumers, compared to 2.8 million of Nintendo Co.'s Wii and 1.4 million of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, according to market-researcher NPD Group Inc.

But Microsoft's game efforts have been a consistent money-loser for the company. In the past three fiscal years, Microsoft has reported a cumulative operating loss of $3.08 billion from its home and entertainment division, of which the Xbox 360 is the dominant product.

Microsoft said that it stands behind its products and is taking responsibility to repair or replace any Xbox 360 console that experiences the “three flashing red lights” error message within three years from time of purchase free of charge, including shipping costs. Microsoft will take a $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion pre-tax charge to earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 for anticipated costs under its current and enhanced Xbox 360 policies.

“The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But, this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division. “We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come.”

For any customer who has previously paid for repair expenses related to the three flashing lights error message on the Xbox 360 console, Microsoft will retroactively reimburse them.