Following reports of rampant failures concerning Xbox 360 Elite units in the UK, Microsoft has denied the stories and downplayed the details which were divulged. An independent repair specialist took on Microsoft's side this time around, saying that Elites are far less prone to the notorious red rings of death which has plagued earlier versions  of the console. More after the jump.

 

Bad news for Xbox 360 owners in the UK who've just had their consoles display the dreaded red ring of death: Micromart, a UK-based firm that specializes on repairing consoles, recently announced in their website that they had stopped offering repair services to red-ringed Xbox 360s.

Their reason? Apparently, ever since the infamous Red Ring of Death surfaced as an apocalyptic nightmare for all Xbox 360 owners, there's been quite an amount of repair requests for them - so much that they couldn't keep up with the backlog. Thus, they've drawn up the conclusion that the red ring's a problem inherent to the console itself. Here's the exact message posted in their website:

Micromart has now withdrawn from offering a Repair Service for the dreaded 3 Red Lights fault. This problem is endemic on the XBox 360 console and the volume has made this repair non-viable. Other repairs to the XBox 360 are still being supported.

The good news is, they're still offering repairs for the console - so long as it's not about the Red Ring. It's a bit sad, though, that this particular snag in an otherwise great console is breaking not only many Xbox 360 fan's hearts, but console repair firms' as well. Updates as we get them.