I'm suprised the topic of emulation hasn't been raised yet! The Xbox 360 emulator project Xenia[0] has made great progress on perserving a generation of games[1].
[0]https://github.com/benvanik/xenia [1]http://xenia.jp/compatibility/
[0]https://github.com/benvanik/xenia [1]http://xenia.jp/compatibility/
Personally the emulator is of no use to me, but like you said, it's all about the preservation of the generation of games. In 50 years will it even be possible to find a working Xbox 360? Probably not. That's why projects like this are needed.