K2 Network

K2 Network, Inc. was an American producer and publisher of videogames based in Irvine, California. It pioneered the use of the free-to-play (or "freemium") business model among North American and European MMO game publishers in 2004.

On July 5, 2012, the company merged with Reloaded Games, and the merged entity ceased its K2 Network branded operations.

History

K2 Network was founded in 2001 on the belief that "the community experience of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG’s) will become one of the most significant forms of entertainment in the 21st century." The company initially licensed games created by Korean development studios, and localized and serviced those games in North America, South America and Europe via its portal GamersFirst.com. In 2007, the company raised $16m USD in a Series-B financing round lead by Intel Capital.

Alleged Sexual harassment AT K2 NETWORK India

a 27-year-old female employee of a Bangalore BPO firm, K-2 Network Pvt. Ltd, for California-based computer game services company K2 Network Inc., complained to her human resources manager about sexual harassment by the director of India operations. The next day when she came to work, she says she was stopped at the entrance by the security guard. The company sent her a termination letter. It’s been almost eight months, but with no relieving letter in hand, she has been unable to find a job. “My husband wanted me to take it to court,” said the woman on condition of anonymity. She has served a legal notice to K-2 Network challenging the termination. Mint has reviewed the legal notice, but was not able to independently verify the veracity of the employee’s claim. K-2 Network director, India, Shinoj Nambiar denied the charges. Speaking to Mint over the phone, he said: “She was terminated due to her performance, and we have documents to prove that. The allegation is a made-up story. Our legal consultants are dealing with this case.” K-2 Network has faced a similar allegation before. A 29-year-old woman says she, too, had faced sexual harassment at the company; she spoke on condition of anonymity. When she complained to human resources, they asked her to resign and she did as she was told. Asked why she didn’t go for a legal route, she said, “I come from a middle-class family and my husband told me not to work in a company where they don’t respect women.” Having received her dues and her relieving letter, she was able to find another job after two months. She, now, holds a 10am-6pm job at an insurance firm.

Union defends harassed employee

TG(Techgoss): Would you tell us how/why were you sued and how it was resolved? KS(Karthik Shekhar): We had taken the case of a women employee from K2 Networks which is a gaming firm. The employee who is our member had complained to her boss about her manager asking for sexual and other favors. Instead of making an enquiry they terminated this employee under pretext of under performance, who till the previous month was a star performer and in one month they find her not suitable for the job and terminate her.

When we took up this case, the lawyers of K2 Network sent us a legal notice saying that they are framing a defamation case against us as we are taking up the case with a prejudice

Creation of Studio Subsidiary Reloaded Productions

In November 2010, K2 Network's subsidiary Reloaded Productions purchased the rights to APB: All Points Bulletin from Realtime Worlds during the latter company's administration proceedings for a fraction of the game's original 60 million GBP development cost, aiming to convert the game from a traditional subscription based business model as designed by Realtime Worlds, to a game called APB: Reloaded using the company's free-to-play model. In June 2011, Reloaded Productions acquired Fallen Earth from Icarus Studios planning to repeat the subscription-to-freemium business model conversion.

On March 16, 2015, Reloaded Productions purchased the rights to Hawken.