Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils‑Aimé has revealed that pressure on stock and what he described as "obscene" demands from Amazon prompted Nintendo to stop supplying Wii and DS consoles to the online retailer. The comments were reported by Eurogamer.
Fils‑Aimé, who led Nintendo of America from 2006 to 2019, said the company chose to withdraw the systems from Amazon rather than accede to requests that he considered improper. The executive told Eurogamer: "I wasn't going to do something illegal," characterising the retailer's demands as beyond acceptable commercial practice.
The move came amid significant demand for both the Wii and the DS in their launch periods, when stock allocation and retailer behaviour were critical to how devices reached consumers. Nintendo's decision to cut direct supply to Amazon shifted availability dynamics for those platforms and underscored tensions between hardware manufacturers and large online retailers over allocation, promotion and pricing.
Eurogamer's coverage notes the episode as one of several high‑profile clashes between manufacturers and big retailers from the era, and places Fils‑Aimé's remarks in the broader context of Nintendo's retail strategies during periods of constrained supply.
Full details and the original reporting are available at Eurogamer: eurogamer.net.