Criticism of Drillimation Systems

Since the early 1990s, Drillimation Systems, a Japanese anime and video game studio wholly owned by Bandai Namco Holdings, had been involved in numerous controversies involving acquisitions of companies and anti-consumer practices in their products.

Studio acquisition and managment
During the 1990s, when Drillimation was in a period of rapid growth in the video game industry, the company developed a reputation for acquiring development studios and other companies in the field of anime, primarily for their intellectual property assets rather than talent, and forcing drastic changes on their products that impact the quality of their franchises, and then dissolving them if their product failed to meet market demand. This led to critics comparing Drillimation to an assembly line, looking to expand or add to new product lines. All games published by acquired studios are done by Bandai Namco Entertainment under their Drillimation brand.

Drillimation's handling of Seymour Games, the studio behind the Patry and HotShots Party series, is an example of this business practice. Seymour became a Driller Engine licensee in 1990 and was fully acquired in 2009. Under Drillimation's rule, they were forced to quickly finish Patry: Smash It! for the Nintendo Wii, and received mixed-to-average reviews upon release rather than the generally favorable reviews the games from that franchise generally get. Other companies that were affected by Drillimation's handling included AlphaDream and BladeSteel Games.

Treatment of customers
There have been several instances of Drillimation enforcing bans on Drillimation Online and Steam to what critics argue are considered minor infractions, such as making rude or offensive comments in their official forums or chat. In March 2001, a Drillimation Online player was banned for allegedly making the comment "have you sold your souls to the Scarlet Devil?" That user referred to CEO Susumu Takajima being the "Scarlet Devil." His account was banned for 72 hours which prevented him from playing any of his Drillimation games. Drillimation later confirmed his ban was a mistake and that future violations on the forums would not interfere with players' access to their games.

Later the same year, in October and November 2001, one player was banned for posting memes and making sexually suggestive comments about the CEO. Another player received a 72-hour ban for posting information on reviving permanently banned accounts from the service. The online services where he posted the memes received DMCA takedowns as well. In addition, one player was permanently banned for submitting a forum post that J-pop singer Kagami Ochiai likes to "puff-puff" her boyfriend Susumu Takajima, in reference to the suggestive act from the Dragon Quest series.