Reggie Fils-Aimé says Amazon once asked Nintendo to break the law
During a lecture at NYU, former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé revealed that Amazon once pressured Nintendo to engage in practices that would have violated antitrust laws. In the 2000s, as Amazon aggressively expanded beyond its book-selling roots, the retailer sought “obscene” financial concessions from Nintendo to undercut competitors, particularly Walmart.
Amazon’s demands included preferential treatment that would have damaged Nintendo’s relationships with other retailers and potentially constituted illegal antitrust violations. Rather than comply, Nintendo decided to stop selling its products through Amazon altogether, resulting in a prolonged period where Nintendo consoles were largely unavailable on the platform.
The conflict between Nintendo and Amazon lasted years, but the two companies have since reconciled their differences. The improved relationship is now evident in Amazon’s current availability of Nintendo’s latest hardware, including the newly released Switch 2.
Fils-Aimé’s disclosure sheds light on the pressures faced by major publishers and hardware manufacturers when dealing with dominant retailers, and how companies sometimes choose to withdraw from platforms entirely rather than compromise their business principles or legal standing.