No. The HD-DVD standard wasn't ready when the 360 launched, period. The console would had to have been delayed a year, which means it would never have seen anything close to the success it's had. Launching early was MS's only shot, and they wisely took it (even at the sacrifice of hardware quality, it was the right move). Instead of 18 million units at this point, we'd be looking at a situation much closer to the original Xbox: less than 10 million -- probably a lot less.
And that's assuming they could have launched at the same price with HD-DVD hardware in it, which I doubt. Launching a year later, with a higher price? It would be the PS3 all over again, except without the brand and developer loyalty that saved that machine. It would have been dead in the water.
And in any case, why would they bother? It sounds like you're assuming MS was in partnership with Toshiba in the HD-DVD format. This isn't the case. MS had no vested interest in the format's success -- in fact it's more likely they wanted both to fail. And since the advantage of 15/30gb disks over 9gb disks is questionable (even the PS3's 25/50gb disks haven't proven to be an advantage), why would MS go through all that for such little reward?
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