Back when the Nintendo DS and the Wii were the hottest new consoles Nintendo broke away from selling on Amazon. The reason then was unknown but thanks to recent lecture at NYU, former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé revealed the reason behind the split. It seems that Amazon was asking Nintendo to do something illegal and could potentially hurt their standing with other major retailers.
Reggie said exactly why Nintendo products disappeared from Amazon for a stretch of time years ago. It turns out the split wasn’t just about pricing or logistics. Instead it came down to a request Nintendo simply wasn’t willing to entertain. Something that Nintendo thought was immoral.
According to Reggie, Amazon wanted Nintendo to agree to a business arrangement that would have violated the company’s own policies and potentially crossed legal lines. He didn’t go into every detail, but the implication was clear. Amazon was pushing for a level of control over pricing and distribution that Nintendo wasn’t comfortable with. Rather than bend, Nintendo chose to walk away entirely.
“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… Essentially what Amazon wanted (was an) obscene amount of support, financial support, so they could have the lowest price and beat Walmart. I literally said to the executive, “You know that’s illegal, right? I can’t do that.”
Literally we stopped selling to Amazon and it’s because 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. This is the way we do business. And so that’s how over time you build respect.”
Reggie Fils-Aime
That decision led to a noticeable absence of official Nintendo products on Amazon for a while. At the time Nintendo’s decision confused a lot of consumers. Third-party sellers filled the gap, often with inflated prices or inconsistent availability. From the outside, it looked messy. But internally, it was a calculated move to maintain control over how Nintendo products were sold and represented.
Reggie said that this was a case of Nintendo sticking to its principles. The company has always been known for keeping their products well controlled. Retailers get the same pricing across the board which makes it hard to put Nintendo consoles and games on sale. That’s the reason that “Black Friday” sales often don’t include Nintendo products.
Eventually, the two companies came to an agreement again and Nintendo products returned to Amazon in an official capacity. But the story behind it highlights the fact that Amazon, in it’s early days when they were starting to break away from just book sales, was a company that could at times ask for more than what companies were willing to agree to.
