It's breaking even on the manufacturing and distribution of the console. They still need to recoup the cash sunk into R&D.

Wow that's really good from MS, the shareholders must be pleased. I'm guessing 12 months of software royalties and Live revenue will make up for the R&D and marketing expenses. 

Whoa, hold on. The title of the article is not what he is quoted as saying in the article, not unless there is more to the interview than is included here.

The second paragraph 0_o

I don't see "from launch" anywhere.  I see "we're looking to be break even or low margin".  "Looking to be" could easily be interpreted as a goal with no context about it being long term or short term.  I don't understand where the assumption "from launch" is coming from.

You're not serious? Common sense is where it's coming from. They're not talking about down the road.

It's a total 180 in terms of past console launchs. When your profiting at launch and Nintendo isn't... lol is all I can say.
Gives strong hope for people who want a price cut, but I hope it sells very well at $500.

Even in a "break even" scenario, you still need to actually sell your units to consumers to remain profitable. And I really doubt they will manage to sell their product at 500$ after they go through the initial batch.

Kinect needs to go.

It's not common sense to make assumptions without context.  If there is context the writer has knowledge of that's not included in the article, that's one thing, but as it stands, "from launch" is a complete assumption relative to the supplied information.  That is a fact.

I'm sorry, but "looking to be" is open-ended.

I doubt he felt the need to point it out, not everything needs to be when yes, it's common sense.