Microsoft has been sued in Sacramento County Superior Court, for allegedly covering up the "excessive failure rate" of its Xbox 360 consoles, according to VentureBeat.

The lawsuit charges that Microsoft hid the defects in order to compete with the Playstation 3 and the Wii.

The Xbox failures in question were accompanied by a series of flashing red lights around the console's power button (aka, the "Red Rings of Death.")

According to some reports, the lawsuit alleges that the failure rate of the consoles was an astounding 50 percent or more. Past estimates have been more in the range of 30 percent.

Last summer, Microsoft said it would take a charge of more than $1 billion in part in order to expand its warranty policy for the Xbox to "repair or replace any Xbox 360 console that experiences the 'three flashing red lights' error message within three years from time of purchase free of charge, including shipping costs."