GamesBeat weekly roundup: Call of Duty multiplayer (it has women!), Xbox One does not require Kinect

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Activision unveiled several new features in Call of Duty: Ghosts (including female soldiers in multiplayer), Nintendo dominates console sales with the Nintendo 3DS, and Microsoft announces that the Xbox One will still function without the Kinect plugged in, which is another reversal from the company’s Electronic Entertainment Expo announcement.

You’ll also found reviews for Saints Row IV, Europa Universalis IV, Divinity: Dragon Commander, and Plants vs Zombies 2.

News

• The DeanBeat: Will Call of Duty’s audience split into two multiplayer factions?
• Viacom to bring streaming cable channels to new Sony TV service
• Call of Duty: Ghosts will make its e-sports debut at Major League Gaming’s November event
• Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer tries to satisfy noobs and vets (hands-on preview)
• Virtual dictators can rule with or against their friends in Tropico 5 launching in 2014
• Investor Peter Relan wants game entrepreneurs to disrupt consumer markets
• DragonVale co-developer plans to launch new action-platformer Glare this fall
• Microsoft to produce a remake of BBC sci-fi TV show ‘Blake’s 7′ for Xbox Live
• Buy select DLC season passes on Xbox 360 and get them for free on Xbox One
• DICE reveals that Battlefield 4 stats will carry over from current to next gen
• Surprise? Disney Infinity’s toy-game push has a mobile strategy
• AMD’s Never Settle Forever bundle rewards those who buy games and graphics cards together
• Nvidia director mentions PC version of Grand Theft Auto V is coming ‘this fall’
• Microsoft ‘strongly believes’ you’ll love the Xbox One Kinect so much that you’ll never disconnect it
• Disney to release ‘Toy Story in Space Play Set’ for Disney Infinity

Mobile news

• iOS puzzler Dots now available for Android and Kindle Fire
• Exponential Entertainment’s Movie Pong takes film trivia into mobile world
• Disney Infinity Action! mobile app puts Disney characters into your videos (and it’s lawyer-approved, too)
• Leap Motion: 1 million app downloads in 3 weeks

Reveals and announcements

• DICE reveals that Battlefield 4 stats will carry over from current to next gen
• EA Sports will launch NHL 14 demo Aug. 20
• Pokémon X and Y: Nintendo reveals 3 more Mega Evolutions
• Trion Worlds names new CEO and shuts San Diego studio
• Check out the ‘diesel-punk’ action of Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s final expansion

Tech

• Infinity Ward explains which next-gen tech will work in the current-gen Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Xbox One architect: ‘The console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in’
• The Xbox One controller will work with your PC — eventually

Trailer hoedown

• Here’s GamesBeat’s Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer video collection
• Get into trouble with your friends in Grand Theft Auto Online starting Oct. 1 (video)
• Watch the Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer trailer
• The free Disney Infinity: Toy Box iPad app creates and edits worlds for the console game (video)
• A closer look at the Xbox One controller (video)

Call of Duty: Ghosts

• Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer event (photo gallery)
• Activision’s Eric Hirshberg on whether Call of Duty can defy gravity (interview)
• What Call of Duty: Ghosts means for e-sports
• Activision unveils Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer, and you can play a woman
• Watch the Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer reveal right here (liveblog)

Earnings

• Steam, GamersGate summer sales help digital game revenues reach $1.1 billion in July

NPDs

• July 2013 NPD: Animal Crossing is officially a system seller

All this funding

• Investor Peter Relan wants game entrepreneurs to disrupt consumer markets
• Video Games Live concert series is crowdfunding a third album
• Kickstarter campaign aims to revive the printed video game strategy guide
• Ouya’s $1M indie-game fund is live — goal is to help crowdfunded games

Ruh-roh

• College football powerhouse SEC walks away from EA
• Zynga departures continue under new chief exec Don Mattrick
• Nintendo not considering Wii U price drop even after glacial quarterly sales

Previews

• Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer tries to satisfy noobs and vets (hands-on preview)
• Shadow Warrior reboot shoots the classic into the modern age (preview)

Reviews

• Saints Row IV is relentlessly funny and surprisingly touching (review)
• Paradox still the grand master of grand strategy with Europa Universalis IV (review)
• Divinity: Dragon Commander pulls off its mishmash of genres with gusto (review)
• It’s about time: Plants vs. Zombies 2 is here, and it’s damn good (review)

Pieces of flair

• Skylanders figures are outselling all other action-figure properties … so far (infographic)
• 5 crazy reminders of why we want Grand Theft Auto V on PC
• Saints Row IV features 10 different words for ‘crotch’ (infographic)
• An audience of 100 million gamers has fired over 32 quadrillion shots in Call of Duty (infographic)
• Dracula’s castle from Castlevania would only cost half-a-million dollars