Reggie Fils-Aimé says Amazon once asked Nintendo to break the law

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Follow Follow See All Tech Reggie Fils-Aimé says Amazon once asked Nintendo to break the law Amazon wanted ‘obscene’ financial support to undercut Walmart. Amazon wanted ‘obscene’ financial support to undercut Walmart. by Terrence O'Brien Close Terrence O'Brien Weekend Editor Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

Follow Follow See All by Terrence O'Brien May 3, 2026, 3:24 PM UTC Link Share Gift Photo by Susan Goldman / Bloomberg via Getty Images Terrence O'Brien Close Terrence O'Brien Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Terrence O'Brien is the Verge’s weekend editor. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget.

Way back in the DS days, Nintendo decided to stop selling to Amazon. During a recent lecture at NYU , former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé said it was because Amazon was seeking preferential treatment that would have hurt its relationship with other retailers, and potentially broken the law . The two sides have since made amends , and you can buy a Switch 2 through Amazon.

But for a long time, Nintendo consoles had been largely unavailable on the site. In the 2000s, Amazon aggressively expanded beyond books and tried to undercut everyone on price. According to Fils-Aimé, Amazon wanted to undercut even Walmart and was looking for an “obscene amount of support, financial support.

Industry Implications

” While he didn’t specify what kind of financial support Amazon was looking for, Fils-Aimé says he told the Amazon executive in question, “You know that’s illegal, right? ” He went on to say this was part of the reason the company ended its relationship with Amazon: “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.

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This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.