RED LIGHTS! RED LIGHTS!!

After a couple of years of loyal service, my Xbox360 finally succumbed recently to the much-maligned Red Lights of Death. As far as I know, this is caused by overheating and other factors, resulting in the telltale colors of doom. This actually happened first a week ago, then the box seemed to shrug it off. But the next time I used it, it died and didn’t get up again. So I was forced to bring the console to a shop to have it serviced.
While my Xbox’s working again, so I’ll be able to get right back into Mass Effect and Virtua Fighter 5 Live Arena. I was, however, given a caveat by the tech that this may eventually happen again, and if it does I’ll have to cough up the dough for a repair again. Hopefully that won’t happen again for a year or two but we’ll never know. Why DOES this happen? I hope there’s never something like that in the PS3. I just want to play, darn it!