Reggie Fils-Aimé Recalls Why Nintendo Cut Ties With Amazon During DS Era
▼ Summary
– Reggie Fils-Aimé said an Amazon executive asked Nintendo to provide excessive financial support to undercut Walmart’s prices, which he refused because it was illegal.
– The phone call occurred near the end of the Wii and DS generation, when Amazon was expanding into video games and seeking the lowest market price.
– Nintendo stopped selling to Amazon as a result of Fils-Aimé’s refusal to engage in illegal pricing practices.
– Nintendo and Amazon had a separate dispute in 2024 over third-party resellers, leading to Nintendo products being pulled from Amazon, though both companies denied conflict.
– Fils-Aimé stated that his refusal set a precedent for a respectful business relationship, and Amazon was included in the original Switch launch in 2017 based on mutual benefit.
Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former president of Nintendo of America, recently shared a revealing story about a tense phone call with an Amazon executive that ultimately led Nintendo to cut ties with the retail giant during the Nintendo DS era. Speaking at a New York University lecture, Fils-Aimé recounted how Amazon requested what he described as an “illegal” arrangement.
The conversation took place near the “tail end of the Wii and DS generation,” roughly the late 2000s or early 2010s. At the time, Fils-Aimé was “driving a lot of revenue” for Nintendo while Amazon was aggressively expanding into video games, aiming to “have the lowest price out in the marketplace.” The dispute escalated as it worked its way up through Nintendo’s sales organization.
“Essentially, what Amazon wanted, is they wanted an obscene amount of support – financial support – so they can have the lowest price and beat Walmart,” Fils-Aimé explained. “I literally said to the executive, ‘You know, that’s illegal. I can’t do that.’ You get silence on the other end, and it’s like, ‘but this is what I want.’ Literally, we stopped selling to Amazon, and it’s because I wasn’t going to do something illegal.”
This wasn’t the only friction between the two companies. Last year, rumors circulated that Nintendo and Amazon were clashing over third-party resellers, leading to product shortages ahead of the Nintendo Switch 2 launch. Nintendo denied those claims, and Amazon stated it was “pleased to offer Nintendo products directly” to customers. After roughly a year without first-party titles available on Amazon, Nintendo games returned to the platform in June 2025.
While the full story behind last summer’s tensions remains unclear, Fils-Aimé’s account sheds light on the deeper issues. “I wasn’t going to do something that would put at risk the relationships we have with our other retailers,” he said. “But it also set the stage to say, ‘Look, you’re not going to push me around. This is the way we do business.’ And so, that’s how, overtime, you build respect.”
Despite the fallout, Fils-Aimé noted that Amazon was “right there at the table” for the launch of the original Nintendo Switch in 2017. That success, he added, was only possible because it was “based on a mutually beneficial approach.”
(Source: IGN)
