HD DVD should of been the standard drive within every 360 from the start. This was Microsoft and Toshiba's biggest mistake. HD DVD's were as cheap to produce as standard DVD's. Trying to sell HD DVD's for $30US each was stupid. MS shot itself in the foot. imagine a year ago, if there was 10 million HD DVD 360's available compared to the PS3's 2.8 million Blu-Ray Players.

It could of been a different scenario and HD DVD's would still be in the market. MS seriously dropped the ball. This is IMO a much bigger mistake than RROD.
HD DVD drive as an add-on was doomed from the beginning. Add-ons always fail, no one likes paying extra for something that should of been included within the console to start off with.

Blu-Rays are in their early stages. HD DVD's had faster load times and HD Drives were 16 speed compared to the Blu-Ray. Storage capacity for both Blu-Ray and HD DVD are around the same. HD DVD games could of fitted 20GB games on a disc, matching PS3's Blu-Ray Discs.

HD DVD's are now a thing of the past. Opportunity for Microsoft to win  format war has come and gone. PS3 with Blu-Ray built in won hands down.

Imagine what the possibilities could of been for the 360 with an internal HD DVD drive? Discuss. 

Putting an HD DVD drive in would have delayed launch by a year and pushed the price up and right now the Xbox 360 would have been a relative nonity.

MS's biggest mistake was Rrod.

To trojan horse a HD DVD within the 360 would of been a good idea. Even if it meant making a larger initial loss to build up market share. HD DVD players were cheaper than Blu Ray players.

Totally agree.  An Integrated HD-DVD drive would not have done anything to help 360 sales.  They might actually be less than now because of the higher cost.  The HD media war would still be going on today, and everyone would lose.  The one thing MS did right, was make their machine a game console, and not try to throw everything into it.

RRoD was a HUGE mistake.  The initial 360s were one of the most unreliable consumer electonics devices ever.

It would have raised the cost of the 360 AND delayed it. Going head to head with the PS3 with a similar price would have been a horrible idea for a company trying to expand its market. Microsoft didn't care about HD-DVD and didn't need to. It might have been good for HD-DVD but not for the 360.

Imagine how much money could of been made out of HD DVD sales? HD DVD market would still be live and kicking.
BTW: HD DVD players and Blu-Ray Players would of both outlasted the 360 and PS3. But unfortunately HD DVD's were not put in as a trojan horse within the 360. Consequently HD DVD's died out.

The storage capacities are not around the same. 15 GB and 25 GB aren't nearly the same. Everything else seems to have been better in HD DVD but its storage capacity, in my opinion, was too close to that of DVD's. It would have been enough for the X360 but it would've been too little for the next one.

HD DVD would have taken the price of the X360 up and its lead could have been much less. It would have been a bigger risk for MS, and possibly even a failure. We still don't have too much need for more than DVD has to offer, although it is clear that we will have need.

What if it was built in, then blu-ray still won.

Now that would have been bad.

Xbox 360 games have been fine so far with DVD9.

The pro's and cons of DVD and BD seem to be about the same.

Blu ray couldn't have won ( or won as easily ) with 19 million HD-DVD XBOX's out there.

I think for the 360's sake leaving the HD-DVD out was the best move , the pricepoint would have been too high , launch too late and overall bad for the 360.

Including an HD-DVD drive would've been a disaster. Instead of launching a year earlier at a much cheaper price, they would've launched around the same time as the PS3 and Wii and priced about the same as the PS3, the 360 would've been murdered.

Sony can get away with trying to win a format war with their console, because they have a strong brandname, and can afford to take huge losses on the PS3 thanks to the PS2 and PSP making up a lot of that. If MS were taking the same losses on the 360 with the addition of the cost of RROD repairs, they would probably be out of the console business this generation. By leaving HD-DVD out, they have a fighting chance for 2nd place, may actually make a profit eventually on the 360, and increased their marketshare.

Other than RROD, the 360's biggest mistake was not including an HD in every console, they essentially took a step back on that front, and it not only hurts the quality of games, but also goes against their Xbox Live plans for digital distribution of media.