If you regularly browse Amazon US, you might have noticed that some Nintendo products sold directly by Amazon have seemingly disappeared from the online store. Now, Bloomberg has published a report on why that's happened.
According to Bloomberg's sources, the issue presented itself when Nintendo noticed that certain third-party sellers on Amazon were undercutting official products. They would essentially purchase the products in Southeast Asia, where they were presumably cheaper, and then sell them in the United States via Amazon.
In an attempt to reassure Nintendo, Amazon offered to attach labels to products to guarantee their authenticity. However, the proposal wasn't deemed enough of an assurance to Nintendo, and the Japanese company ultimately decided to remove its products from Amazon in the US.
When Bloomberg asked Amazon for a comment prior to publishing the story, a spokesperson simply commented, “The claims made by Bloomberg regarding our relationship with Nintendo are inaccurate,” without providing any further details on the subject.
Whatever the case, the fact remains that the issue prevented Amazon from participating in the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, which turned out to be the fastest-selling console in history with its over 3.5 million units sold in the first four days since the launch date (June 6), going twice as fast as the original Switch when considering the same timeframe.
What's perhaps even more impressive is that even without selling directly on Amazon US, by far the biggest online store in the country, the Nintendo Switch 2 still sold 1.1 million units across the United States in the launch week, beating the record previously established by Sony's PlayStation 2 in October 2000. By the way, Nintendo products (Switch 2 included) are regularly available in several countries, such as Japan itself, the United Kingdom and Canada. However, Amazon US makes up two-thirds of the store's global sales.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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