A thread in the official Xbox forums indicates that Microsoft is officially extending the warranty of all Xbox 360 systems purchases before 01/01/06 to one year. They are also apparently reimbursing all Xbox 360 console owners that purchased their console within that time frame for any repair charges incurred as well. While no official word has been issued from Microsoft, numerous users from the Xbox.com and NeoGAF forums have apparently called and verified this information. According to the posts, gamers that wish to apply for a credit, or that wish to confirm the extension of their warranty can call 1-800-4MY-XBOX with their Xbox 360 serial number and date of manufacture. Some callers are reporting that a copy of the receipt is required; others are saying that this is not a requirement. Of course, one year from the date of manufacture doesn’t give a lot of time for those who purchased their consoles at launch. For those gamers who have had to send their consoles in for repairs; this seems like a good move on Microsoft’s part. This program would also seem to confirm that there were problems with the first couple of batches of Xbox 360’s built for the console launch.

Update: Dean Takahashi at Mercury News has confirmation here.

The full Microsoft statement:

As part of our standard and ongoing process of analyzing repair data, we recently noticed a higher than usual number of units coming in for repair. Upon further investigation, it was further discovered that the bulk of the units were isolated to a group that was part of the initial manufacturing run of the console. Returns for repair are coming in for a variety reasons and it’s a higher rate than we are satisfied with. We’ve made the decision to comp repairs for consoles manufactured before January 1, 2006, and provide refunds to the small group of customers who have already paid for repairs.