Back in February, Activision laid off a lot of employees and cancelled a few projects. Among the canceled projects was True Crime: Hong Kong. Activision felt True Crime: Hong Kong “just wasn’t going to be good enough” to soar to the top spot in its genre. Not everyone felt the same about the game. Square Enix had enough confidence in True Crime: Hong Kong that it has scooped up the rights from Activision.

Respawn Entertainment’s founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella are currently in a fierce legal battle with its former publisher Activision. The pair were fired from Infinity Ward last year and are being accused of conspiring with Electronic Arts to damage the Call of Duty franchise beyond repair. Respawn and EA are now in a partnership together, but at one point, THQ had the opportunity to be Respawn’s publisher.

And you thought Disney’s recent purchase or Marvel meant the House of Mouse would get to keep all of Spider-man’s amazing friends. Heirs to several of the Marvel characters are suing Disney to make certain they recover rights to their parent’s creations.

The children of deceased artist Jack Kirby have reportedly filed 45 notices of termination of copyright. If successful, they would acquire their father’s share of copyrights on characters including the Fantastic Four, Hulk and X-Men, retaining the rights for several years before the characters become public.

Uwe Boll is up to his old tricks again although, technically, this is a new trick. The oft-maligned director of terrible video game films has actually procured the rights to a game that isn’t out yet: PC action-RPG Legend: Hand of God. The game is due for a 2008 release, with a tentative early 2009 date set for shooting Boll’s likely skewering of the subject material.

There’s a certain level of amusement in all the franchise whoring going around these days, and Boll is certainly the most prolific offender…