A stack of emails released as part of the ongoing legal action between Activision and Call of Duty's creators have turned up some hilariously catty exchanges and contingency plans coming from the publisher's top brass.

Posted over on the LA Times, a 2009 email from Activision's president of publishing, Mike Griffith, mentions a plan to reward the top 12 members of Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward other than heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella, "to help ensure we retain the team if things blow up at the top. As you know, this has been a difficult relationship."

Another exchange mentions the fact that, when asked by Grifith to provide a live gameplay demonstration of what would have been Modern Warfare 2, West and Zampella apparently hung up on the Activision executive.

When informed of this, Activision boss Bobby Kotick replied "If they really did I would change their locks and lock them out of their building."

To say the Call of Duty creators and Activision enjoyed a fractured relationship is a bit of an understatement.

Activision clash with Call of Duty developers dates back years [LA Times]

Haven't you always wanted to cozy up with an NES? Okay, well, maybe not so much. They do have a lot of sharp edges, and do you even know where that controller has been? I swear I saw the dog licking it yesterday, and then your little brother—

Well. Over at her shop Felt Sew Good, crafter Lucy Sparrow has made a whole line of retro gaming cushions that you can—nay, should—curl up with. It's like the 1980s, reincarnated in pillow form. The original Game Boy, the NES, the SNES... they're all here, soft, cuddly, and quite a bit larger than life. There's even a ZX Spectrum, if you're feeling particularly old-school.

Classic Nintendo Cushions Keep Gamers Comfy and Cozy [Technabob, via tumblr]

I know what you're thinking. Don't we get enough My Little Pony images in our comment section on a daily basis? No, especially not enough video game parody covers from a guy that remembers the PlayStation classic Evil Zone (Evil Pone).

Commenter Raso719 tipped us off to these imaginative video game covers, lovingly crafted by Deviant Art's nickyv917 as found on Equestria Daily. Pony puns about, from the rather brilliant Stable II and Mares of War to the slightly stretched, such as Marevel Vs. Coltcom.

I can't help but imagine nickyv917 and I would get along, were he a real boy; his taste in games is excellent. Skies of Equestria? Come on, that's glorious right there.

Hit up the link below to see Nicky's massive gallery of Pony-covers in its entirety.

My Little Ponified Video Game Covers by Nickyv917 [Deviant Art via Equestria Daily]

Capcom's Devil May Cry reboot will be out on January 15, 2013. That date covers both Europe and North America, and covers both Xbox 360 and PS3. The PC version? It'll be out sometime in 2013. It had previously been announced to be out sometime in 2012.

The wicked-cool video game Persona 3 is perhaps best described as "Basically, Buffy The Vampire Slayer reimagined at a super fashionable Japanese high school." If you're anything like me, that description alone would be enough to make you want to play.

And what do you know? I've been playing Persona 3 Portable essentially nonstop for the last month and a half, and the more I play, the more I realize: This game isn't just like Buffy, it practically is Buffy. Not only do both stories involve supernatural extermination set in a high school (Gekkoukan/Sunnydale) that doubles as a gateway for demons (Hellmouth/Tartarus), their respective casts of characters are practically a 1:1 match.

Don't believe me? Check it out. Here now, the cast of Persona 3 and their Buffy counterparts.

Mitsuru Kirijo | Buffy Summers

Headstrong leader who makes tough decisions and broods a lot. No shortage of daddy issues.

Yukari Takeba | Willow Rosenberg

Shy redhead who starts out weak but becomes stronger and stronger as things progress.

Junpei Iori | Xander Harris

Goofball everyman, probably the most relatable character in the gang. Questionable taste in women.

Akihiko Sanada | Spike

White-haired badass, crush-object. Acts like a hardcase but is actually pretty lovable.

Shinjiro Aragaki | Angel

Dark-haired brooder with a tortured past. Everyone debates whether he is hotter than his light-haired counterpart.

Female Protagonist | Faith Lehane

Newcomer who upsets the balance of things. Lots of power, reckless. Questionable morals. Fools around with various other team-members.

Shuji Ikutski | Rupert Giles

Attentive father figure/squad supervisor. Has mysterious history with the Watchers/SEES. Doubles as school staff member. Wears glasses.

Fuuka Yamagishi | Tara Maclay

Magic-user who isn't worth all that much in actual combat. Enters the group a bit later on. Kind of annoying.

Aigis | Anya Jenkins

Non-human who joins the group and slowly learns what it means to be human. Awesome. Quite attractive for a robot/vengeance demon.

Ken Amada | Dawn Summers

Kid who turns up out of nowhere well past the point where anyone wanted to meet another new character. Whiner. Grating voice. Won't go away.

Natsuki Moriyama | Cordelia Chase

Non-magical mean girl who spends the early part of the story giving the protagonists crap. Eventually comes around around and starts acting cool before leaving forever.

Chidori Yoshino | Drusilla

Irritating mystical chick who talks in poetry. People make a big deal over her but it's impossible to see the appeal.

Takaya Sakaki | Warren Mears

Stupid asshole who whips out a gun and totally ruins everything. Sucks so much.

Mysterious Boy (Pharos) | The Anointed One

Annoying child/malevolent presence who shows up in the early goings and says mysterious BS about the end of the world.

Kenji Tomochika | Andrew Wells

Second banana who won't shut up. Makes questionable decisions for romantic reasons. Seriously won't shut up.

Koromaru | Oz

Early addition who is not-so-secretly the actual coolest member of the crew. Animalistic tendencies.

The court case between Activision and developers Jason West and Vincent Zampella has brought all kinds of ugliness to light. But filings for the case have also made the details of the April, 2010 contract between Bungie, developers of Halo, and Activision a matter of public record, revealing Bungie's upcoming game development plans.

The L.A. Times reports that the 27-page contract outlines Bungie's agreement to develop four "sci-fantasy," action shooter games to be released every other year starting in 2013, under code name "Destiny." The agreement also includes DLC plans, with four expansion packs code-named "Comet" due in the alternating years, beginning in 2014.

The contract also specifies that the first game is a timed Xbox exclusive, created for the Xbox 360 as well as potentially for its still-unnamed successor, called the "Xbox 720" in the documentation. It could then later be released for PlayStation in 2014. In addition to the Xbox, later games could also be released for the PS3 or its successor console, as well as for PC.

In 2011, word leaked that Bungie was working on Destiny. The developer then confirmed at GDC 2011 that they were developing a MMO title.

The contract also specifies that Bungie is working on a Marathon title, based on its 1994 Mac sci-fi first-person shooter.

We have reached out to Activision to find out how much of the 2010 agreement is still planned, and will update if we hear back.

Activision Bungie contract unsealed in Call of Duty case [L. A. Times]

More troubles are plaguing Diablo III.

A report on Eurogamer relates one incident when staffer Chris Donlan's account for playing the hit action RPG was accessed by someone who claimed to have bought it. On the official Diablo III forums, other users are also reporting instances of illicit access and gold theft . Apparently, the hackers are finding a way around the added security provided by Blizzard's Mobile Authenticator, as well, according to forum posts.

First, the long-awaited hack-and-slash suffers a terribly crippled launch week that leaves thousands of players unable to play the game they waited 12 years for. Then they announce that the game's ballyhooed real-money auction houses have been indefinitely delayed. If the hacking of user accounts becomes widespread, it'll be the ugliest setback yet for a game whose always-online connection was supposed to protect players from the worst realities of PC gaming.

Kotaku has reached out to Blizzard for comment and will update this story as needed.

If you've run into this kind of thing—or haven't—chime in in the comments.

Update
Here's Blizzard's comment on the account theft detailed above, as well as a rundown of the security measures already in place for Battle.net users:

Battle.net® Account Security & Diablo® III

We'd like to take a moment to address the recent reports that suggested that Battle.net® and Diablo® III may have been compromised. Historically, the release of a new game — such a World of Warcraft® expansion — will result in an increase in reports of individual account compromises, and that's exactly what we're seeing now with Diablo III. We know how frustrating it can be to become the victim of account theft, and as always, we're dedicated to doing everything we can to help our players keep their Battle.net accounts safe — and we appreciate everyone who's doing their part to help protect their accounts as well. You can read about ways to help keep your account secure, along with some of the internal and external measures we have in place to help us achieve our security goals, at our account security website here: www.battle.net/security.

We also wanted to reassure you that the Battle.net Authenticator and Battle.net Mobile Authenticator (a free app for iPhone and Android devices) continue to be some of the most effective measures we offer to help players protect themselves against account compromises, and we encourage everyone to take advantage of them. In addition, we also recently introduced a new service called Battle.net SMS Protect™, which allows you to use your text-enabled cell phone to unlock a locked Battle.net account, recover your account name, approve a password reset, or remove a lost Authenticator. Optionally, you can set up the Battle.net SMS Protect system to send you a text message whenever important changes occur on your account.

For more information on the Authenticator, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-authenticator-faq

For more on the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-mobile-authenticator-faq

For more on Battle.net SMS Protect, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battlenet-sms-protect

We also have other measures built into Battle.net to help protect players. Occasionally, when Battle.net detects unusual login activity that differs from your normal behavior — such as logging in from an unfamiliar location — we may prompt you for additional information (such as the answer to one of your security questions) and/or require you to perform a password reset through the Battle.net website. World of Warcraft players might be familiar with this security method already, and Diablo III players may begin to encounter it as well.

As always, if you think you've been the victim of an account compromise, head to the "Help! I've Been Hacked!" tool at http://us.battle.net/en/security/help for assistance.

Diablo 3 accounts hacked, gold and items stolen [Eurogamer]

The latest rumor suggests that Konami will be announcing a new Castlevainia game called Castlevania: Mirror of Fate at E3.

This comes via the Dutch website N1ntendo who deduced from Konami's E3 schedule that the new game will be announced. According to N1ntendo, the game will be called Mirror of Fate and will have two members of theLords of Shadow creative team on board: producer David Cox and writer/director Enric Alvarez.

This is all unconfirmed, but the broad strokes of it sound good, at least. I loved Order of Ecclesia on DS, so I'll gladly play another handheld Castlevania game.

Castlevania: Mirror of Fate in the making for 3DS [N1ntendo (translated) via NeoGAF]

The latest rumor suggests that Konami will be announcing a new Castlevainia game called Castlevania: Mirror of Fate at E3.

This comes via the Dutch website N1ntendo who deduced from Konami's E3 schedule that the new game will be announced. According to N1ntendo, the game will be called Mirror of Fate and will have two members of theLords of Shadow creative team on board: producer David Cox and writer/director Enric Alvarez.

This is all unconfirmed, but the broad strokes of it sound good, at least. I loved Order of Ecclesia on DS, so I'll gladly play another handheld Castlevania game.

Castlevania: Mirror of Fate in the making for 3DS [N1ntendo (translated) via NeoGAF]

We've touched on popular science fiction and fantasy novels that need to have video games made out of them in the past, but commenter TheGizmofromPizmo's list of ten contains some rather intriguing ideas, hence today's Speak Up on Kotaku.

Ten books/series from my collection that I think should be made into video games in no particular order:

1) The Integral Trees by Larry Niven. 3D and almost weightless environment.

2) The Uplift series by David Brin. C'mon bioware... you know you want to.

3) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. What do you think? First person shooter? Tactics? RTS?

4) The Eight Worlds series, specifically Steel Beach. You like choosing your sex and body shape in a game? Well then this would be the game for you! Gotta love a book where the invasion and expulsion of humans from the planet earth is secondary to the plot.

5) Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. 'nuf said really. (Editor's Note: Several games already exist)

6) Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Intrigue and politics wrapped around a Space battle simulator.

7) Blood Ties by Tanya Huff. Awesome series of books by a Canadian author. You fight Aztec gods, zombies, anti-werewolf bigots, demon lords. What's not to love?

8) The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. LA Noir with robots.

9) Watership Down by Richard Adams. Think Civilization V but with rabbits. Let me say that again. Civilization V. With rabbits. (Editor's other note: Yes.)

10) Foundation series by Mercedes Lackey. Kind of a mediocre series of books that I somehow got addicted to, I just skip all the boring exposition, but it would make a decent open world RPG. You've got psychic horse like avatars, mind powers, and later on magic.