Nintendo refused to work with Amazon during the DS and Wii era: “I wasn’t going to do something illegal”
The company wanted to offer the lowest prices on the market.
The relationship between Nintendo and Amazon broke down for a time, around the end of the DS and Wii lifecycles. Reggie Fils-Aimé, former president of Nintendo of America, revealed during a lecture at New York University a phone conversation he had with an executive at Jeff Bezos’s company. According to Fils-Aimé (via IGN), Amazon wanted to expand further into the video game market and offer the lowest prices on the market.
“Essentially, what Amazon wanted, is they wanted an obscene amount of support – financial support – so they can have the lowest price and beat Walmart,” one of the major American retail chains. “I literally said to the executive, ‘You know, that’s illegal. I can’t do that.’” Reggie Fils-Aimé noted that there was a silence, which was broken shortly afterward with the following words: “‘But this is what I want.’”
Nintendo wouldn’t budge
Nintendo didn’t consider for a moment accepting that proposal: “We stopped selling to Amazon, and it’s because I wasn’t going to do something illegal.” The former executive of the Japanese company explained that he wasn’t going to do anything “that would put at risk the relationships” with the other stores they worked with: “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.”
Related stories
Fils-Aimé has clarified that Amazon once again partnered with Nintendo for the launch of the original Switch, a success that stemmed from their relationship “based on a mutually beneficial approach.”
Follow MeriStation USA on X (formerly known as Twitter). Your video game and entertainment website for all the news, updates, and breaking news from the world of video games, movies, series, manga, and anime. Previews, reviews, interviews, trailers, gameplay, podcasts and more! Follow us now!
Complete your personal details to comment