Nintendo Halts Console Sales on Amazon Over Concerns of Unfair Practices

Reggie Fils-Aimé isn’t one to back down easily. The former head of Nintendo of America shared insights at a recent NYU Game Center event about how the company temporarily halted sales of the Wii and DS consoles on Amazon due to the retailer’s aggressive tactics and its push to undercut Walmart on pricing. However, by the time the Switch launched in 2017, both companies had found common ground again.

During a conversation on April 30 with NYU’s Joost van Dreunen about fostering business relationships in the gaming industry, Fils-Aimé noted that towards the end of the Wii and DS era, both consoles were moving 10 million units annually in North America. Amazon, eager to join the fray, was not the dominant force it is today and was fiercely competing with other major retailers for market share.

“Back then, Amazon’s strategy was to offer the lowest prices in the market, even undercutting Walmart,” Fils-Aimé explained. “They essentially wanted a huge amount of financial support to achieve that. I told the executive, ‘You know that’s illegal. I can’t do that.’ The response was silence, followed by, ‘But this is what I want.'”

Ultimately, Amazon’s heavy-handed approach didn’t work. “We literally stopped selling to Amazon because I refused to engage in anything illegal or jeopardize our relationships with other retailers. It also established that I wouldn’t be pushed around. This is how we conduct business, and over time, that builds respect,” Fils-Aimé stated.

If you’re curious about the full discussion, it kicks off around the 40-minute mark in the NYU Game Center’s Twitch stream.

While he glossed over the tough times during the Wii U era—the unsuccessful successor to the Wii that launched in 2012 and sold only 13.5 million units—Fils-Aimé mentioned that by 2017, Nintendo and Amazon had patched things up. “Fast forward a few years, and as we prepared to launch the Switch, we wanted every retailer to be on board and go big, and Amazon was right there with us. They supported the launch exceptionally well, but it was based on a mutually beneficial approach that led to those strong business results.”

Despite initial doubts about the hybrid console, the Nintendo Switch has sold over 155 million units as of December 2025, making it Nintendo’s best-selling console ever. The Switch 2, which launched in June 2025, became the fastest-selling console in history, moving more than 10 million units in just four months.

Nintendo’s former executive discusses his new book, Disrupting the Game.