It would be downright idiotic not to make the 360 backwards compatible. I had been planning on aquiring one for Christmas. Due to lack of backwards compatablitiy I'm waiting until my preferred collection: Beyond Good and Evil, Munch, Stranger etc. becomes accessible on the thing.
Microsoft don't seem to have much method to their madness either: Barbie horse adventures is on the list, yet Morrowind, a platinum game with numerous awards is absent: if it's because they're trying to cater for niches, how many little girls with an interest in Barbie do they really think are going to want to buy an Xbow360 of all things? At least titles such as Beyond good and Evil and Strangers Wrath, although they can't have sold very many more than Barbie: Horse adventures, have their fans.
Also, note this text near the top of the list of games in Xavier's link: 'A software emulator is required for each original Xbox game you play on your Xbox 360™ console.'
As far as I know, you must
(a) Have Xbox live to download said emulator (that was in an article in OXM I think...)
(b) Have a game on the above list
Aren't Microsoft wise? *rolls eyes* Whatever they do with their two system thing-ma-bob, I can't see an excess number of already Xbox owners purchasing it until backwards compatability becomes more practical. Yes, the Xbox fanboys will likely parade about the streets proclaming their new beauty, but whatever Microsoft say about new titles making the current selection unimportant (I'm sure I've seen it somewhere!), I'm pretty sure that a lot of people are disgruntled with this impracticality.
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The voices in my head are having cat-fights! 
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