Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former President of Nintendo of America, recently stated during a lecture that the company had pulled its Wii and DS systems from Amazon after the retail giant tried to gain a financial edge over Walmart. Although Nintendo and Amazon eventually made amends, Fils-Aimé said that Amazon’s demands were “illegal” and “obscene” at the time.
Throughout the mid and late 2000s, Nintendo remained a dominant force in the gaming industry. Despite the shortcomings of the Nintendo GameCube, the launch of the DS in 2004 and the subsequent 2006 arrival of the Wii ushered in a new era for the company. Just as the DS made touchscreen controls a norm for Nintendo to utilize, the Wii’s motion control scheme was considered a main selling point. In short, motion control support allowed titles like Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy to become some of the Wii’s best-selling hits.
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Amazon’s Desire to Beat Walmart Did Not Sit Well With Reggie Fils-Aimé
Despite the overwhelming success of the Wii and Nintendo DS, one of the world’s largest retailers was cut off from selling Nintendo systems due to a conversation with the gaming company’s former leadership. In a lecture hosted by the NYU Game Center that was streamed on Twitch, Fils-Aimé looked back on his time as Nintendo of America’s President, a post he held from 2006 to 2019. Fils-Aimé stated that, during his tenure, an executive from Amazon approached him and asked for “an obscene amount of support” financially so that Amazon could offer lower prices on Nintendo products and beat one of their chief competitors, Walmart. Fils-Aimé said that, at the time the conversation took place, Amazon was looking to improve its presence in the gaming space. “Amazon’s mentality back then was that they wanted to have the lowest price out in the marketplace, even lower than Walmart,” Fils-Aimé said.
However, Amazon’s ambition to beat Walmart in the gaming market did not sit well with Fils-Aimé at all. The former Nintendo of America President put his foot down and said that he would not give in to Amazon’s “illegal” demands at the time, leading Nintendo to pull the Wii and DS from Amazon for some time. “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 our 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.’ That’s how, over time, you build respect,” Fils-Aimé explained.
The Wii and DS Still Sold Well Without Amazon
Eventually, Nintendo and Amazon returned to the negotiating table. Fils-Aimé said that, when the Switch was preparing to launch, Amazon was right there with Nintendo to support it. As of this writing, Nintendo products are readily available on Amazon. Despite leaving Amazon out of the conversation for a period of time, Nintendo console sales remained strong. Although the Wii and DS were eventually outsold by the Nintendo Switch, the Wii sold over 101 million units. By comparison, the DS lineup sold a combined 154 million units across its various iterations, such as the DS Lite and DSi.
What’s That Weapon?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Though the Switch has since sold over 155 million units and counting, the legacy of the Wii and DS still endures in the hearts of Nintendo fans. Since Fils-Aime departed Nintendo, the gaming giant has gone on to release the Switch 2, which is approaching its first anniversary on the market in June. Given that the Switch 2 has several anticipated games launching throughout 2026 and beyond, time will tell how successful Nintendo’s current console will be.
