It's not been a great couple of months for two of the major console manufacturers. Following the hacking of the PlayStation Network a few weeks ago, Microsoft has now run into problems of a different kind that is affecting users worldwide.

Microsoft's new DVD format for Xbox 360 (XGD3) gives developers an extra 1 gigabyte of data on each disc to play with, and a firmware update adding support for the new format is being rolled out across the globe. There are already reports, however, that some Xbox 360's are incompatible with the new DVD format and when inserting a disc will receive an error message.

Speaking to Spong, a spokesperson from Microsoft has come forward to clarify the reports. "I want to clear up that this issue is unrelated to the upcoming update that has been in beta and that this is not associated with one 'version' of Xbox 360," he told the website.

"Following a recent update to our system software, we have become aware of an issue that is preventing a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs. This issue manifests itself as a unique 'disc unreadable' or 'disc unsupported' error on the screen and is unrelated to our recent public beta."

The statement goes on to say that the issue can be detected over Xbox Live, so Microsoft is actively approaching customers who it thinks may have been affected. Those affected by the update should visit the offiial Xbox support website for more details.

"This disc read error message is tied to a change in the disc reading algorithms in a recent software update and is not specific to older or newer versions of Xbox 360," says the console manufacturer, who also claims that only a small number of console are affected.

Source: Spong