Reggie says Amazon made illegal demands

Nintendo’s fight with Amazon turns out to be older — and sharper — than the recent Switch 2 drama made it look. Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former president of Nintendo of Ameri(in.ign.com)d selling to Amazon. That matters now because Amazon also famously missed the Switch 2’s US launch window in 2025, which already had people wondering how bad the relationship had gotten. (in.ign.com) ### What did Reggie actually say? He descr(ign.com)nted “an obscene amount of support” so it could post the lowest price in the market and beat Walmart. He said he told the Amazon executive that the ask was illegal, refused, and Nintendo then stopped selling to Amazon. (in.ign.com) ### Why would that be “illegal”? Reggie did not spell out the legal theory in detail, so this part is inference. But the basic issue seems to be ret(in.ign.com)g that risked Nintendo’s relationships with other retailers, which suggests the problem was not just margin pressure but giving one giant seller a market advantage Nintendo felt it could not lawfully or safely grant. (in.ign.com) ### Why does(in.ign.com)art, GameStop, Target, Best Buy. If Amazon got special terms that let it always beat everyone else, Nintendo risked blowing up those other relationships. Reggie framed the decision as a line in the sand — basically, Amazon was not going to bully Nintendo into rewriting its retail strategy. (in.ign.com) ### How big was Nintendo then? Very big. Reggie said Nintendo was selling (in.ign.com)est businesses in games, and Amazon wanted in. That scale helps explain why Nintendo could afford to walk away instead of caving. (nintendoeverything.com) ### So how does this connect to Switch 2? It does not prove the same dispute came back. But it makes the recent standoff look less like a one-off glitch. When Switch 2 preorders opened in 2025, Amazon US was a glaring exception — other bi(in.ign.com)ices; Nintendo and Amazon both denied that account. (ign.com) ### Did Amazon ever get Nintendo products back? Yes. By mid-2025, some Nintendo listings started reappearing on Amazon, including Donkey Kong Bananza preorders, though the broader Swit(nintendoeverything.com)ked selective, uneven, and unusually tense for two companies this large. (ign.com) ### Why is this surfacing now? Because Reggie said it publicly at an NYU Game Center event, and the timing lands right on top of fresh memories from the Switch 2 launch mess. That gives the newer story a backstory — not proof of the same cause, but a pattern of conflict over pricing power, channel control, and who gets to set the rules. (gamecenter.nyu.edu) ### Bottom line The new thing is not that Nintendo and Amazon had friction. It’s that Reggie says one of the breakpoints was an ask he considered illegal. That turns a vague “they don’t get along” story into something more concrete — a long-running fight over price, leverage, and who blinks first.