Maybe some hope for Sony (players available at launch)

[Gamekid]

Although the xbox 360 is a great console, it does have two serious flaws: 1) No backwards compatibility. The easiest thing to do is make an xbox chip and put that inside the xbox 360, however Microsoft doesn't own the rights to the chip so in order to play xbox games, you have to do it the hard way through emulation. Not every game is supported and the ones that are may not look right so you're better off not playing xbox games on the xbox 360. The other problem is that the console lacks memory cards slots so unless you use a third party device, you're out of luck. Sony is addressing both of these issues. It's possible that if Microsoft could acquire the rights, they could make a newer model of the xbox 360.