If your Xbox 360 has experienced a hardware failure indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, here's good news for you. Your warranty has just been extended, and Microsoft will reimburse you for any repair costs you've already incurred.

Of course, that's bad news for Microsoft. The company said today that it plans to take a charge of as much as $1.15 billion in its June quarter to cover the cost of extending the Xbox warranties to three years. This was triggered by requests for what Microsoft calls "an unacceptable number of repairs" to the console.

Xbox owners who have not experienced errors indicated by the flashing lights will not be eligible for the extension.

"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 and Devices Division, in a statement. "We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come."

A Google search for "flashing red lights" and "Xbox" returned more than 16,000 results, including several services that have been established specifically to fix the problem for a fee.