biteho.com

Star Trek Day was September 8th, in reference to the day Star Trek: The Original Series first premiered in 1966. In celebration, StarTrek.com hosted 8 virtual panels for old and new Star Trek series. There were joyful cast reunions, and we also got a handful of new details for current and upcoming shows like Discovery Season 3, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Picard Season 2. Here are the most interesting things we learned from Star Trek Day.

We got a new trailer for Star Trek Discovery Season 3, giving us a look at what the future holds for Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Discovery crew. We learned more about new characters such as Cleveland “Book” Booker, his cat Grudge, Adira, and Gray. There’s also a new logo for the show. We learned that Strange New Worlds will be episodic, with one-off plots, and its cast talked about the some of the challenges that Captain Pike, Spock, and Number One will face.

Highlights from the back half of Season 1 of Lower Decks were shown, and two upcoming cameos from former Trek actors were announced. Not much was told about Picard Season 2, but star Patrick Stewart is very excited about the first four episodes that he has read. Stewart reminisced with Jonathan Frakes about Picard and Riker together again on screen, and what keeps their characters bonded after knowing each other for decades.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

The Xbox Series S has been unveiled, and the lower-spec $299 unit is set to launch on November 10 alongside the Xbox Series X. Alongside the new system, which comes in a white chassis, Microsoft has also unveiled a new controller color to match it.

The “robot white” controller is what you’ll get in the box if you buy a Series S, and aside from the color it’ll be the same as the controller included with the Series X. That means you’ll get an improved D-Pad, a textured grip across the triggers and bumpers, and a share button.

If you prefer this design to the black controller bundled in with the Series X, the good news is that this controller will be available separately, too. It’s also compatible with the Xbox One and PC, so if you just want a new controller with a share button for your current systems you can pick one up.

Individual pricing for the new controllers has not been announced yet. The Series S/X will also be compatible with Xbox One controllers, including the Elite controller.

While we now know quite a bit about Xbox’s next-gen launch, we are still waiting on a final release date and price for Sony’s PS5. Like Microsoft, Sony is releasing two versions of the console, but they will be identical except for either having or omitting a disc drive. Their new controller is the DualSense, and it seems that PS5 games will not be playable with a DualShock 4.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameStop has closed hundreds of stores so far this year, and more closures are planned.

During the company’s latest earnings call, CFO Jim Bell confirmed all the key numbers. In the past three months, GameStop closed 206 stores worldwide. For the year to date, GameStop has closed 388 stores worldwide, and this includes shutting down all of its operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

GameStop now operates 5,122 stores globally, and this is 602 fewer than this time last year. For the current fiscal year, GameStop plans to close a total of 400-450 stores.

“These closures, along with the growth in our online business and expanded omni-channel capabilities, will allow us to more efficiently and profitably service our customers,” Bell said.

GameStop closed these stores as part of an effort to “de-densify” the business and reduce costs. The retailer also confirmed on an earnings call that it has sold its corporate jet, though the company did not confirm how much money it got for it.

GameStop lost more than $100 million for its latest quarter, which is actually significantly better than the loss of $415 million that the company lost during the same period last year.

With the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X coming soon, it’s a big year for GameStop, as the company is historically known to be a market-leader in terms of new hardware sales. GameStop will be among the many retailers that will offer the Xbox All Access subscription program for the new Xbox consoles. The company will also offering its own leasing program, management said on the call, but the full details are not available yet.

Additionally, management said on the earnings call today that they are excited that the PS5 and Xbox Series X have disc drives, which is good news for GameStop’s pre-owned business. There will also be an all-digital PS5 and a disc-free Xbox Series S console.

GameStop is the biggest video game retailer in the world, but the publicly-traded company has experienced instability in recent years due to shifts in games consumption, particularly the decline of the used game market. The company released its official earnings report for Q2 (June-August in this case) today, and while the numbers aren’t quite as dismal as last year, they’re still not promising either.

Overall, GameStop reported a net loss of $111 million, compared to $415 million from the same period last year. However, net sales dropped from $1.2 billion to $900 million–a decrease of 26.7%–which can likely be attributed in part to store closures caused by the ongoing coronavirus crisis. There was a 13% reduction in total store operating days due to COVID-19, and a 10% reduction in the overall number of stores. The company did champion a 800% increase in e-commerce sales, which represents 20% of its net sales. The company’s stock decreased by more than 4% due to the report.

GameStop made national headlines back in March when the retailer tried to declare itself an essential business, with the company’s management ordering staff to resist efforts by authorities to close their stores. GameStop later went back on this claim, closing stores to in-person retail and offering curbside pickup instead. The retailer plans to close more than 300 stores this year. The upcoming launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be a boon to the company in the short-term, but it’s still unclear what effect that will have in the long-term.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Like most movie and TV productions during the COVID-19 pandemic, FX’s Fargo came to a halt back in March while shooting Season 4. However, a new premiere date of September 27 was announced by the network last month, and this long break was actually good for the star of the new season, Chris Rock.

During an FX event for the press, Rock discussed just what it was like working on a TV show in the midst of a pandemic. “I got in the car. I kissed my wife. She went over the bridge. No that’s that Will Smith movie. I’m sorry,” Rock said during the press event, referring to Smith’s I Am Legend. “It was definitely frustrating to stop when we stopped because you feel like you’re on a roll. But you know, you’re eight shows in, and you’re also exhausted.

“It allowed me–I don’t know about everybody else–to like recharge my battery. And, you know, and I saw a couple of the episodes, I was like, ‘Okay, let me work on my game.’ I don’t know if anybody’s following basketball right now but the Miami Heat is like, ‘Oh they had a break, and now they’re better than everybody,’ even though they weren’t before–like the break helped them more than everybody else. So the break helped me. Honestly, I think my last two shows are my best.”

The transition for comedians to actors isn’t foreign, as Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx, Richard Pryor, and many others have done this with varying levels of success. When it comes to Rock, he doesn’t look at these roles as comedic or serious. “I believe everything that’s good is good because it’s taken seriously. So I don’t really like the term ‘serious acting.’ I think Jim Carrey when he’s being in Dumb and Dumber is acting funny, very seriously. I’m attracted to the storytelling and the filmmaking.”

This is, however, a different role for Rock, who plays Loy Cannon in Season 4 of FX’s Fargo. Cannon is the head of an African American crime family in 1950s Kansas City. “I was just happy to be offered a decent part that was well-rounded. I gotta say [Fargo producer] Warren Littlefield has offered me decent parts for years. And it just hasn’t worked out. And this is the first time it really worked out but aside from Warren Littlefield, no one ever offers me decent parts. It was actually great to play somebody like my age, too. It’s like I kind of got really famous at 35 or whatever 37, and everything that’s offered to me it’s like I’m kind of like a man boy. So, it was great to actually play a grown ass man.”

You can see Rock as Loy Cannon in Season 4 of Fargo when it airs on FX on Sunday, September 27 at 9 PM. The first two episodes will air that night, and subsequent Sundays will air new episodes at 10 PM, with them landing on Hulu the following day.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.