Destruction AllStars received its own State of Play today, detailing game modes, currency, hero abilities, the challenge series, and much more for this PlayStation exclusive launching on PlayStation Plus on February 2, 2021. Destruction AllStars' State of Play was revealed alongside the PlayStation Plus games for February 2021, a list that includes this new title from Lucid Games. This 8-minute deep dive began by discussing the game's three types of vehicles. The first is all about speed, which can drift and take corners like no other. The second is all about agility and was built specifically for giving the maximum amount of control. The third type are the heavy vehicles and can endure the most damage. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/27/destruction-allstars-state-of-play-video"] These cars are disposable by design and you are meant to constantly be jumping in and out of vehicles to earn points and destroy your opponents. When you are evading, wrecking enemies, and getting pick-ups, you will be charging both your hero vehicle ability and hero ability, each which are unique to the one of 16 characters you choose. The State of Play revealed Lupita's trail of fire abilities that damage all in their wake, while Shyft's are more strategic as they can turn them invisible and allow them to disappear from the mini-map. All heroes will be able to move faster and double jump while in hero mode. Inside or outside of hero mode, all heroes can wall-run, vault, vault-boost, ricochet off walls, dodge, and more. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=destruction-allstars-game-modes-reveal&captions=true"] We also got a look at a few of Destruction AllStars' modes, which were revealed last year. The three modes showcased were Carnado, Stockpile, and Gridfall. Currency was also discussed, and it's comprised of both All-Star Coins and Destruction Points. All-Star Coins are earned by playing online and earning XP, while Destruction Points can be purchased from the PlayStation Store. Following launch, there will be daily and weekly challenges players can compete in to earn Destruction Points. Lastly, the Challenge Series was teased, which focus on a single all-star and their rival. Besides getting a "little bit of backstory and motivation," there will be unique challenges and gameplay and it will all culminate with a final showoff against their rival. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/21/destruction-allstars-meet-your-allstars-trailer"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Update 1/27 4:49 pm PT: Activision Blizzard reached out to provide a response to today's report claiming Vice "mischaracterized" the SEC filing made by the company's attorneys. In this new statement, Activision Blizzard says its objections were "rooted in the fact that the AFL-CIO proposal failed to adequately consider how to apply these practices in all of the countries we operate in." The AFL-CIO is a federation of labor unions and is based in the United States. The organization is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and several affiliated unions do cross borders into Canada. IGN has asked Activision Blizzard to clarify whether the AFL-CIO specifically requested these hiring rules to be applied across all of Activision Blizzard's international businesses, or just ones based in the United States. Here's Activision Blizzard's full statement below:

Activision Blizzard is committed to inclusive hiring practices and to creating a diverse workforce; it is essential to our mission. Vice completely mischaracterized the SEC filing made by our outside attorneys. In fact, our hiring practices are rooted in ensuring diversity for all roles. We engage in this aggressively and successfully. Our objection was rooted in the fact that the AFL-CIO proposal failed to adequately consider how to apply these practices in all of the countries we operate in. Our games have uniquely influenced popular culture and have helped to increase tolerance and inclusion through their connectivity as well as the heroes we portray and our stories that celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion in so many powerful ways. In order to ensure that our games stay true to our mission--to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment--we require that all candidates of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, races and sexual orientations are considered for each and every open role. We aggressively recruit diverse candidates so the workforce provides the inspired creativity required to meet the expectations of our diverse 400 million players across 190 countries. We remain committed to increasing diversity at all levels throughout Activision Blizzard worldwide.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Original Story: A new report has found that Activision Blizzard is resisting the adoption of a hiring practice that would require the company to interview at least one candidate who is a qualified woman or minority candidate. Activision Blizzard, via its attorneys have called this practice "unworkable." In a new report from VICE, the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the United States, submitted a shareholder proposal to Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts (EA) requesting it adopt a hiring policy that would require each company to include women and people of color in its initial pool of potential candidates. The AFL-CIO is a shareholder in both Activision Blizzard and EA, and the letter request was sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/24/marvels-kevin-feige-almost-quit-over-lack-of-diversity-while-making-avengers-says-mark-ruffalo-ign-news"] The proposal is modeled after the Rooney Rule in the National Football League. Adopted in 2003, the rule required NFL teams to interview at least one non-white candidate for a coaching job. VICE reports that the rule was later expanded to include women and other marginalized candidates. Activision, a company of over 9,000 employees and the makers of some of the biggest games like Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, has reportedly chafed at this proposal. It has taken measures to exempt itself by claiming that these guidelines are excluded from the SEC's guidelines for shareholder proposals. Furthermore, a letter by Activision, obtained by Motherboard claims, "While the Company has implemented a Rooney Rule policy as envisioned [for director and CEO nominees], implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company's ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market." Activision claims that this proposal violates SEC guidance as a way for a shareholder to "micromanage" the company. In a statement to VICE, EA says it will "consider the stockholder proposal" with its Board of Directors. It should be noted that these proposals are legally non-binding. What they end up doing, however, is to highlight issues and pave a way forward for a company to address them. But Activision appears to get ahead of having these discussions altogether. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter @LawofTD.

Update 1/27 4:49 pm PT: Activision Blizzard reached out to provide a response to today's report claiming Vice "mischaracterized" the SEC filing made by the company's attorneys. In this new statement, Activision Blizzard says its objections were "rooted in the fact that the AFL-CIO proposal failed to adequately consider how to apply these practices in all of the countries we operate in." The AFL-CIO is a federation of labor unions and is based in the United States. The organization is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and several affiliated unions do cross borders into Canada. IGN has asked Activision Blizzard to clarify whether the AFL-CIO specifically requested these hiring rules to be applied across all of Activision Blizzard's international businesses, or just ones based in the United States. Here's Activision Blizzard's full statement below:

Activision Blizzard is committed to inclusive hiring practices and to creating a diverse workforce; it is essential to our mission. Vice completely mischaracterized the SEC filing made by our outside attorneys. In fact, our hiring practices are rooted in ensuring diversity for all roles. We engage in this aggressively and successfully. Our objection was rooted in the fact that the AFL-CIO proposal failed to adequately consider how to apply these practices in all of the countries we operate in. Our games have uniquely influenced popular culture and have helped to increase tolerance and inclusion through their connectivity as well as the heroes we portray and our stories that celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion in so many powerful ways. In order to ensure that our games stay true to our mission--to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment--we require that all candidates of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, races and sexual orientations are considered for each and every open role. We aggressively recruit diverse candidates so the workforce provides the inspired creativity required to meet the expectations of our diverse 400 million players across 190 countries. We remain committed to increasing diversity at all levels throughout Activision Blizzard worldwide.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Original Story: A new report has found that Activision Blizzard is resisting the adoption of a hiring practice that would require the company to interview at least one candidate who is a qualified woman or minority candidate. Activision Blizzard, via its attorneys have called this practice "unworkable." In a new report from VICE, the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the United States, submitted a shareholder proposal to Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts (EA) requesting it adopt a hiring policy that would require each company to include women and people of color in its initial pool of potential candidates. The AFL-CIO is a shareholder in both Activision Blizzard and EA, and the letter request was sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/24/marvels-kevin-feige-almost-quit-over-lack-of-diversity-while-making-avengers-says-mark-ruffalo-ign-news"] The proposal is modeled after the Rooney Rule in the National Football League. Adopted in 2003, the rule required NFL teams to interview at least one non-white candidate for a coaching job. VICE reports that the rule was later expanded to include women and other marginalized candidates. Activision, a company of over 9,000 employees and the makers of some of the biggest games like Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, has reportedly chafed at this proposal. It has taken measures to exempt itself by claiming that these guidelines are excluded from the SEC's guidelines for shareholder proposals. Furthermore, a letter by Activision, obtained by Motherboard claims, "While the Company has implemented a Rooney Rule policy as envisioned [for director and CEO nominees], implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company's ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market." Activision claims that this proposal violates SEC guidance as a way for a shareholder to "micromanage" the company. In a statement to VICE, EA says it will "consider the stockholder proposal" with its Board of Directors. It should be noted that these proposals are legally non-binding. What they end up doing, however, is to highlight issues and pave a way forward for a company to address them. But Activision appears to get ahead of having these discussions altogether. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter @LawofTD.

An animated Game of Thrones series is in very early stages of production at HBO Max, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

No deal has been inked as of yet, so it’s entirely possible the series will never materialize, but THR reports that HBO is meeting with writers for the potential project. The animated series will reportedly follow in the same mature tone of the original TV franchise.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=everything-coming-to-hbo-max&captions=true"]

Representatives for HBO Max declined to comment. It's unclear if the animated series would follow the events of the original series or follow different events in the Thrones universe.

Chalk it up to the growing list of Game of Thrones spinoffs that HBO is eagerly pursuing following the end of the original series. There’s the adaptation of the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas that explores the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and Aegon Targaryen. House of the Dragon, a prequel series focused on the Targaryen family, has recently hired on Doctor Who’s Matt Smith and The Witcher series director Geeta Patel and expected to premier in 2022.

 [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-game-of-thrones-that-never-was&captions=true"] This won’t be HBO Max’s first original animated series. Close Enough, the next series from Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel, premiered in 2020. IGN gave it a seven out of 10, calling it a “effective and entertaining.” HBO Max has also produced a number of original animated miniseries based on properties like Looney Tunes and Adventure Time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/animated fella for IGN.

An animated Game of Thrones series is in very early stages of production at HBO Max, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

No deal has been inked as of yet, so it’s entirely possible the series will never materialize, but THR reports that HBO is meeting with writers for the potential project. The animated series will reportedly follow in the same mature tone of the original TV franchise.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=everything-coming-to-hbo-max&captions=true"]

Representatives for HBO Max declined to comment. It's unclear if the animated series would follow the events of the original series or follow different events in the Thrones universe.

Chalk it up to the growing list of Game of Thrones spinoffs that HBO is eagerly pursuing following the end of the original series. There’s the adaptation of the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas that explores the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and Aegon Targaryen. House of the Dragon, a prequel series focused on the Targaryen family, has recently hired on Doctor Who’s Matt Smith and The Witcher series director Geeta Patel and expected to premier in 2022.

 [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-game-of-thrones-that-never-was&captions=true"] This won’t be HBO Max’s first original animated series. Close Enough, the next series from Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel, premiered in 2020. IGN gave it a seven out of 10, calling it a “effective and entertaining.” HBO Max has also produced a number of original animated miniseries based on properties like Looney Tunes and Adventure Time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/animated fella for IGN.

On this week's episode of IGN's PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano, Lucy O'Brien, and Max Scoville to discuss the Resident Evil Village Maiden demo, exclusively available on PS5, as well as why we're loving Hitman 3, Cyber Shadow, and more. Plus, we miss the PlayStation Plus games announcements but make our guess for the lineup, answers some listener questions, and more! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"]

• Direct Download

• YouTube

•  Apple Podcasts/iTunes

• Spotify

• Stitcher

• PlayerFM

• Podbay

• TuneIn

• Podbean

• Feedburner

Podcast Beyond! is live every Wednesday. For more on PS5, check out our PS5 console review and our PS5 wiki guide for tips on how to best use your system. And for more Beyond, be sure to watch the first episode of our Bloodborne let's play! [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=f72748d4-3754-4213-a27e-66173a199a56"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

On this week's episode of IGN's PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano, Lucy O'Brien, and Max Scoville to discuss the Resident Evil Village Maiden demo, exclusively available on PS5, as well as why we're loving Hitman 3, Cyber Shadow, and more. Plus, we miss the PlayStation Plus games announcements but make our guess for the lineup, answers some listener questions, and more! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"]

• Direct Download

• YouTube

•  Apple Podcasts/iTunes

• Spotify

• Stitcher

• PlayerFM

• Podbay

• TuneIn

• Podbean

• Feedburner

Podcast Beyond! is live every Wednesday. For more on PS5, check out our PS5 console review and our PS5 wiki guide for tips on how to best use your system. And for more Beyond, be sure to watch the first episode of our Bloodborne let's play! [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=f72748d4-3754-4213-a27e-66173a199a56"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

GameStop’s stock is acting strangely, still. It’s gone even higher after last week’s surge drove GameStop’s value skyrocketing to record levels. And although the week is still young, it shows this unexpected rise is, rather than a result of anything the company’s done,  a savvy bit of investing, at least in the short-term. The interest in GameStop’s irregular stock activity has thrust the Reddit group seemingly driving the surge into the spotlight. Popularly described as “4chan with a Bloomberg Terminal,” r/WallStreetBets is a wild west of stock investing “advice” and memes. And the pearl-clutching establishment has certainly painted this group as a rogue troll army messing with the "official" practices of Wall Street. IGN has reached out and spoken to several r/WallStreetBets day traders to find out more about this group that has thrust the struggling video game retailer into the spotlight.

What Is Going on with GameStop Stock?

GameStop stock (traded as $GME) is on the up-and-up. Prices for a single piece of stock peaked today at around $145. Compare that to a year ago, when prices for the biggest video game brick-and-mortar retailer hovered around $15 but went as low as $3 a share. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gamestop-in-the-news-timeline&captions=true"] Some Wall Street investors bet that GameStop would continue to struggle and began short-selling the company, a strategy where an investor borrows stock of that particular company — in this case, GameStop — and sells it in the hopes that prices for the stock will continue to drop. If that happens, they can buy back the stock for even cheaper and keep the difference as a profit. But instead of going down, prices are going up, and this is bad for short sellers who have to buy back the stock they borrowed. Redditors on r/WallStreetBets saw the short early and moved in to buy GameStop stock early and cheap, creating a short squeeze. Short sellers rushing to buy while minimizing losses created a rush to buy GameStop stock, which in turn drove up prices. A vicious cycle, if you will.

Who Is Squeezing Wall Street?

In speaking with traders on r/WallStreetBets, it’s evident that these traders are not wolves of Wall Street, but hobbyists who trade on the side and have either a clear-eyed or irreverent view of the stock market. Three traders from r/WallStreetBets IGN spoke to say that they are not full-time traders, while a fourth says they’re still relatively new to trading. And all three also joined the community fairly recently with the longest member following the subreddit about a year ago. “I had seen the subreddit in some YouTube video after I got into trading but was only doing my own thing until this GME stuff really started to pop off and I bought in,” one trader, who asked to go by Ike for privacy reasons, tells IGN. [caption id="attachment_2465120" align="alignnone" width="837"] Source: Google.[/caption] Ike bought GME stock when it was around $30 and says he spent about $600 on his position. He says his option is now worth around five times that value but is still waiting before selling. When asked why they went in on GME, Ike says that it took “some convincing” and due diligence but that it was “mostly FOMO [or, Fear of Missing Out].” Another trader named Tj says they invest "on the side for fun," while working as a full-time engineer at a major tech company. Their option is worth six-figures after going in at a buying price of around $18 per stock. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/07/how-gamestop-plans-to-save-itself"] In keeping with their 4chan with a Bloomberg Terminal mantra, these traders prefer memeing their way through Wall Street, using terms like FOMO or YOLO [You Only Live Once] to explain away their investment decisions. One investor named Sage says they’ve only been following r/WallStreetBets for “around two months” and that investing is a “side hustle.” For “about five minutes” Sage’s GME options were worth $33,000, based on an initial investment of $1000. Though they chose not to sell. The biggest success story is someone who goes by u/DeepFu*kingValue on WallStreetBets who regularly updates the subreddit on the price of their option which is currently valued at $13 million. The energy the subreddit brings into trading can only be described as chaotic. One thread by user u/dumbledoreRothIRA is titled, “I’M NOT SELLING THIS UNTIL AT LEAST $1000+ GME” with an additional expletive and some rocket ship emojis for good measure. The subreddit is also claiming a “victory” against hedge fund Melvin Capital Management, a short-seller that the Wall Street Journal reports is getting an outside investment to help stabilize the fund after a variety of short bets fell through. One of which was Melvin’s bet against GameStop.

GameStop, a Meme?

One reason why the GameStop stock situation is so absurd is that for the past three years, GameStop has been struggling as a business. A brick-and-mortar video game retailer, GameStop has not been able to compete with digital retailers like Amazon as well as the growing trend of customers buying primarily digital versions of games through portals like Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live. When IGN spoke with GameStop’s chief customer officer Frank Hamlin back in 2019, he explained that “As a specialty retailer, we are linked at the hip to this category of video games. We compete with a bunch of generalist retailers who don’t have the same seasonality as we do because they sell paper towels and loaves of bread and they can use video games as a loss leader to sell a loaf of bread.” The increased competition has forced GameStop to close around 400 and 450 stores in 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic has not helped physical retailers like GameStop in the least. And whatever is happening with the stocks is not indicative of the business' actual current performance, which is still struggling. But GameStop is a mainstay in the public gaming consciousness, and the brand recognition has driven WallStreetBets to embrace the struggling brand. Whereas investors on Wall Street proper saw a struggling retailer, WallStreetBets saw an underdog and piece of gaming childhood. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gamestop-experimental-stores&captions=true"] Sage says that while “Reddit Hype” factored into their decision to go in on GME, so did “childhood memories.” Meanwhile, Tj tells IGN that their non-retirement investing is done with additional income. "So I figured might as well throw it into the latest meme and let it ride," they said. Another trader who spoke with IGN named Branyan said that knowing GameStop helped them go in on their own position. “I’ve done my fair share of shopping there,” says Branyan. “It definitely did make a difference that I knew the business opposed to going in blind. I’ve trusted them with my business so I should be able to trust them with my trades.” Ike says they were very aware of GameStop both from their childhood and recent news. “Like most my age [GameStop] used to be a place I’d go often for games as a kid, and I knew about its decline as I've watched the closure of one [of the stores] close to me.” However, Ike cites the addition of pet retail giant Chewy’s co-founder Ryan Cohen to GameStop’s board and the company’s attempts to remodel some of its stores into experiential event spaces as signs of positive change.

What Happens Next?

One side-effect of the GameStop Stock squeeze is the increased scrutiny on r/WallStreetBets. Mainstream and finance-focused publications are covering the subreddit in recent days — and not in a way the community finds helpful. “News coverage has been unfair and misleading, often referring to WSB as a single entity that makes decisions for millions of people,” says Ike. “But take only a glance at the sub and you’ll see just how wrong that is, [it’s] full of people taking all sides [on an investment] and people posting random sh*t half the time.” Tj says they're worried that the media coverage could harm inexperienced investors "jumping into stocks without researching." They believe that "a lot of people will lose more than they can afford to," because of the notoriety. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/11/how-is-gamestop-still-a-thing-ign-daily-fix"] “Well to tell you the truth [the media coverage] is very worrisome,” Branyan adds. “Many subreddits have been shut down in the past and wiped out due to getting negative media coverage. The coverage we’re getting now seems to want to suggest that we are attempting to manipulate the market as a collective single organism. This isn’t the case. We are just a bunch of investors who like to chat about what we do.” “People make huge YOLOs and succeed sometimes and people like to see that. That is what you’ll find at the base of WSB. People making it big or losing it all trying. We aren’t trying to manipulate the market, we’re trying to go big or die trying. Each and every one of us.” As for their GME options, the investors say they’ll eventually sell and hopefully make a profit. “I’ll sell when u/deepfu*kingvalue sells,” Sage says.

Update 1/27: The Fallout From $GME Continues

As the GameStop situation continues, there have been several developments. Driven by the activity on GameStop stock, r/WallStreetBets are discussing other potential stocks that could behave similarly. AMC stock, the movie theater chain besieged by COVID-19 has come out as a popular choice along with companies like BlackBerry and Nokia. Meanwhile, leaders in government and finance are sounding off on the GameStop stock situation on Wall Street. Nasdaq President Adena Friedman says it is monitoring the situation on social media for "unusual activity in stocks." White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says President Biden's economic team is "monitoring the situation" as well. And politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14) tweeted, "Gotta admit it's really something to see Wall Streeters with a  long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino."

Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 27, 2021

Reddit also suffered temporary outages during the ongoing GameStop stock situation, though it is apparently back up. There has also been financial damage to short-seller hedge fund Melvin Capital, which was reported to have closed out of its GameStop position after requiring nearly $3 billion in external financing to help stabilize its fund after a few shorts fell through, one of which was GameStop. CNBC reports that there are several hedge funds in similar trouble for their own GameStop options. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Update 01/28/21: Stock trading apps have seemingly begun limiting the purchase of Gamestop, AMC, and other recently volatile stocks. Popular app Robinhood will now let users sells these stocks, but not buy them, displaying a message saying "This stock is not supported on Robinhood" (image below). These stocks are no longer even searchable on the app. [caption id="attachment_2466593" align="alignnone" width="1125"] A screenshot of the Robinhood app, displaying the "stock not supported" message.[/caption] Other trading solutions, such as Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Trading 212 have similarly limited purchases. In a blog post, Robinhood explained that it was restricting transactions for AMC, Gamestop, Blackberry, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Express, Koss, Naked, and Nokia, due to "recent volitility". "We’re committed to helping our customers navigate this uncertainty, reads the blog. "We fundamentally believe that everyone should have access to financial markets." Many members of the WallStreetBets community have been outraged by the moves, arguing that it amounts to market manipulation, with some users saying they've submitted complaints to the SEC about the blocks. The Gamestop stock has subsequently tumbled in value after the moves by trading apps: [caption id="attachment_2466653" align="alignnone" width="702"] Source: Google[/caption] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Update 3 01/27/21: - The subreddit r/WallStreetBets is no longer private, and the mods have posted a message explaining the ever-changing situation they are dealing with how they plan to move forward and address its issues. "We have grown to the kind of size we only dreamed of in the time it takes to get a bad nights sleep," u/zjz wrote. "We've got so many comments and submissions that we can't possibly even read them all, let alone act on them as moderators. We wrote software to do most of the moderation for us but that software isn't allowed to read the Reddit new feed fast enough and submit responses, and the admins haven't given us special access despite asking for it. "We're suffering from success and our Discord was the first casualty. You know as well as I do that if you gather 250k people in one spot someone is going to say something that makes you look bad. That room was golden and the people that run it are awesome. We blocked all bad words with a bot, which should be enough, but apparently if someone can say a bad word with weird unicode icelandic characters and someone can screenshot it you don't get to hang out with your friends anymore. Discord did us dirty and I am not impressed with them destroying our community instead of stepping in with the wrench we may have needed to fix things, especially after we got over 1,000 server boosts. That is pretty unethical. "To add to this, people are co-opting our name on twitter. I won't mention their accounts, but lots of handles with "wsb" and "wallstreetbets" in them are pretending to speak for us. They're saying things that we don't agree with, driving traffic to derivative communities and shitty pixelated merch stores, and generally making it harder for us to define who we are. There's also too much political bullshit in a community that was never ever political. The only way I want to occupy Wall St is in a suit myself or rent-free in the mind of a blown up short. "That is why I'm throwing my support behind the Twitter handle in general. We need a way to PUBLICLY reach out to the staff of the infrastructure that is failing us so the world can see that we aren't doing anything wrong here if they don't respond. We need to be able to respond directly to a reporter that is lying to the world about our clubhouse. We can't be expected to meet any expectations when we aren't given the tools we need. "That's not to say I approve of every message or will even be in the loop for all of them, but it's clear to me we can't do nothing and we need a megaphone. "http://twitter.com/wsbmod aka @wsbmod is the only Twitter handle whose statements are directly from some part of the team. "We'll do our best not to pretend to speak for you, but to try to speak with the volume our name now seems to command to get shit done for us." Update 2 01/27/21: The WallStreetBets Discord server has been banned, not because of "financial fraud related to GameStop of other stocks," but because it has continued to allow "hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings." The subreddit r/WallStreetBets has also gone private, but it does not appear to be banned as of this writing. Discord's statement on WallStreetBets, as given to IGN, is as follows; "The WallStreetBets server has been on our Trust & Safety team’s radar for some time due to occasional content that violates our Community Guidelines, including hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation. Over the past few months, we have issued multiple warnings to the server admin. "Today, we decided to remove the server and its owner from Discord for continuing to allow hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings. "To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks. Discord welcomes a broad variety of personal finance discussions, from investment clubs and day traders to college students and professional financial advisors. We are monitoring this situation and in the event there are allegations of illegal activities, we will cooperate with authorities as appropriate." Update 01/27/21: Reddit has said it has resolved the issue. Original story follows. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Reddit is currently experiencing outages during the ongoing GameStop stock situation. Reddit has acknowledged the issue and has said to check out redditstatus.com for up-to-the-moment updates. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/26/reddit-investor-group-drives-gamestop-stock-to-record-highs-ign-news"] As of this writing, GameStop stock is currently trading at an all-time high stock price of around $350, but it isn't due to a miraculous turnaround by the company, but a battle between short-sellers like Citron Research and others like the subreddit r/WallStreetBets. Short selling is more or less a strategy in which investors can borrow stock in exchange for an IOU. For example, an investor can borrow a stock from a broker for $100, in hopes that the stocks price goes down. If that price does go down to $80, they can buy back that stock, but at the price of $80, therefore netting a $20 profit. It is basically betting against a particular stock. GameStop isn't the only stock impacted by this situation, as other companies like AMC are soaring following a new interest by r/WallStreetBets. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gamestop-in-the-news-timeline&captions=true"] Reddit will most likely be back up soon, and we will update this article with any and all future updates. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

It’s true what they say. No one escapes the “Loop” in Fortnite. Whether it’s the near-constant barrage of licensed characters or world-altering events, there’s always something going on. The latest of which being an interesting update called the Fortnite Winter Trials.

What are the Fortnite Winter Trials?

Just like the game’s loop – involving Fortnite’s trapped denizens and their repetitive battles – Epic Games’ frequent updates are seemingly perpetual in nature. So much so, that they recently jumped the gun and revealed the Fortnite Winter Trails site before the event was live. Epic hasn’t come forward with any news just yet. Thankfully, data miner HYPEX was able to share some information about the coming event. According to Hypex and the official event page, the Winter Trials is an influencer tournament that will reward active players with cosmetics; they’ll be able to garner badges that unlock different rewards over the course of seven days.

Fortnite Winter Trials 2021 Schedule

The Fortnite Winter Trials site states that the tournament starts on January 25 and ends on February 1 at 8:59pm PST/11:59pm EST. Individual and team challenges start on January 26 and run until the 31st. Check out the full Fortnite Winter Trials schedule below:

Group Tournament Schedule:

• January 25, 28, and 31 starting at 3pm PT/6pm ET

Individual and Team Challenges Schedule:

• January 26, 27, 29, and 30 starting "at every player's convenience"

How to Earn Fortnite Winter Trial Badges

In order to unlock the Fortnite Winter Trial rewards, players will need to first gain badges. This is done by voting for challenges, collecting bounties, and by just playing Fortnite. The number of badges earned is determined by the activity. The core activities are:

• Logging in to the activate challenge – 1 badge
• Voting for a community challenge – 1 badge (once per challenge for a total of 4)
• Supporting an influencer team by clicking “thumbs-up – 1 badge available daily
• Playing Fortnite for 20 minutes – unlimited (every 20 mins in the main game rewards a badge)

Fortnite Winter Trial 2021 Rewards

As for the rewards, there's a total of twelve and most of them are still hidden. Epic has only revealed a unicorn spray, snow man-like emote, and animated gun wrap (the first, sixth, and final rewards respectfully). We'll update this article with the rewards as they unlock throughout the trial.

• 1/12: Unicorn spray
• 2/12: Coming soon
• 3/12: Coming soon
• 4/12:?
• 5/12:?
• 6/12: Snow-man emote
• 7/12:?
• 8/12:?
• 9/12:?
• 10/12:?
• 11/12:?
• 12/12: Animated gun wrap

Fortnite’s Winter Trials appear to be a solid event for new and veteran players alike. There’s no buy in, fans get to support their favorite influencers, and potentially unlock free stuff. For more Fortnite guides, check out how to get the Predator skin. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kenneth Seward Jr. is a freelance writer, editor, and illustrator who covers games, movies, and more. Follow him @kennyufg and on Twitch.