"Beyond Good & Evil" was not a commercial success. The game saw poor sales upon its release in the 2003 Christmas and holiday season. Retailers quickly decreased the price by up to 80 percent. "Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine" staff attributed the poor sales of the game—among many other 2003 releases—to an over-saturated market, and labeled "Beyond Good & Evil" as a commercial "disappointment". In retrospect, Ancel noted that consumers at the time were interested in established franchises and technologically impressive games. Coupled with the number of "big titles" available, he stated that the market was a poor environment for "Beyond Good & Evil" and that it would take time to be appreciated. The "Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine" staff further commented that the lack of marketing from Ubisoft and the game's odd premise naturally reserved it to obscurity. Part of the disappointing sales stemmed from Ubisoft not knowing how to market the title, something that Ubisoft North America CEO Laurent Detoc labeled as one of his worst business decisions. At the time, Ubisoft's marketing efforts were more focused on the release of "". Ubisoft's former North American vice-president of publishing, Jay Cohen, and its European managing director, Alaine Corre, attributed the commercial failure of the game to a lack of marketing. "The game play was there, the technical excellence was there but perhaps the target audience was not there," Corre told the BBC. Corre later commented that the Xbox 360 release (in 2011) "did extremely well", but considered this success "too late" to make a difference in the game's poor sales. The game was intended to be the first part of a trilogy, but its poor sales placed those plans on hold at the time.