Fortnite is Now Police Car-Free

Fortnite no longer has cops inside the games. Well, there were not any to begin with, but now the battle royale game has hidden all the cop cars. Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3 has replaced all the cop cars with regular cars. Epic did not draw any attention to the change or even confirm the news when it appeared in Kotaku last week, but a Wall Street Journal source explains that the removal was a response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer. The Black Lives Matter protests all around the world probably have something to do with it as well.

A while earlier, Epic announced that they are going to delay the release of the new Fortnite season. It arrived on June 17, alluding to the protests going on all around the globe. Epic explained that they need to balance the launch of Season 3 with the time that the developers have to focus on their communities, families, and themselves. It can be assumed that this small delay also gave the studio time to remove the police cars on the map.

The systemic racism and police brutality going on has sparked protests and it needs to be confronted in the gaming community as well. American cities are questioning the role that police plays in society, so it is a good opportunity to consider the troubled relationship that the gaming world has with the law.

In Fortnite, the removal of police cars has no actual impact on the gameplay. They function the same way that the replacement cars do, so basically they have no real function, apart from being salvage material and something to hide behind. Functional cars are available on Fornite’s docket, and we will get a sneak peek soon, but we will be able to use them until later in this season.