The Demand Behind the Feud

Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé revealed a key piece of gaming industry history at a recent NYU lecture: Amazon once asked Nintendo to engage in illegal pricing practices, and Nintendo walked away from the relationship entirely.

The incident dates to the late 2000s, when the Wii and Nintendo DS were Nintendo's best-selling hardware ever. An Amazon executive approached Fils-Aimé and requested "an obscene amount of financial support" so Amazon could undercut Walmart's prices on Nintendo products.

"Amazon was looking to get bigger into the video game space. Amazon's mentality back then is they wanted to have the lowest price out in the marketplace, even lower than Walmart. I literally said to the executive, 'You know that's illegal, right? I can't do that.'"

Nintendo's Response: Cut Them Off

Rather than negotiate, Nintendo stopped selling to Amazon. Fils-Aimé framed the decision as a matter of principle: "I wasn't going to do something illegal. I wasn't going to do something that would put at risk the relationship we have with other retailers. But it also set the stage to say, look, you're not going to push me around."

A Feud That Continues Today

The fallout from that meeting has echoed for decades. Nintendo first-party games have frequently been unavailable on Amazon, and pre-orders have been cancelled without warning. When Nintendo Switch 2 launched recently, Amazon conspicuously had no pre-order listings while other retailers sold out. Many had speculated this was about third-party sellers undercutting Nintendo's prices — but the actual origin runs deeper.

Amazon's Troubled Gaming History

Amazon has poured enormous resources into gaming with little to show for it. Internal studios have laid off thousands. Cloud gaming service Luna shut down last month with no refunds for subscribers. Gaming leadership departed the company at the start of 2026. The irony is sharp: the company that once demanded Nintendo bend the rules to help Amazon grow its gaming business never successfully built one.

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Reggie Fils-Aimé Reveals Amazon Demanded Nintendo Break the Law