Inquisitive Xbox 360 owners in the UK have discovered the most recent batch of consoles serviced for repairs have returned with additional cooling installed for the console's GPU (graphics processing unit). Photos and anecdotal evidence of the new heatsink have already been floating around, suggesting Microsoft is adopting new measures to prevent further heating issues which have plagued the Xbox 360 console since its launch.

Microsoft itself has yet to officially address and confirm these discoveries. When quizzed, a company rep would only state that the possibly of updating product components throughout its lifetime is hardly out of the question. Why the runaround if the whole point is to make the product run better than before? Perhaps Microsoft is afraid that making a big fuss out of the new heatsinks would simply draw more media attention to the always touchy 360 failure rate issue.

"Regularly updating console components is commonplace within the industry and is a standard aspect of the business for a variety of reasons including cost reduction, improved manufacturability and improved performance.

"We do not provide details on these updates."

Wolfwood via gamesindustry.biz »