'Fortnite' Players Search For Missing Cop Cars

It wasn’t just the map that was noticeably different with “Fortnite” in Chapter 2, Season 3.

As a result of the vengeful storm that has flooded the game, most of this season has forced life to adjust and try to remain afloat. Although Epic Games has hinted that the water will recede and the trailer shows characters driving vehicles aside from boats and sharks in the future, many of the map’s decorative vehicles are understandably gone because of that same flood.

Some players, though, have noticed the peculiar absence of police cars. Whereas the map in “Fortnite” used to include many police cars to coincide with a variety of trucks, passenger cars, and ice cream trucks, it’s been almost impossible to find any police cars on the battle royale island, according to Kotaku.

Those same vehicles could also be found in Creative mode as part of sets of vehicle pre-fabs but you’d be hard-pressed to find them in Creative mode now.

A comment on Reddit points out that police cars will fall from a junk rift thrown in Creative, but they turn to regular cars when they fall. A Reddit thread on June 17 saw a player noting the missing police cars while a handful of players have said the same on Twitter.

The recent global unrest caused by the murder of George Floyd has therefore caused some to suspect that as one of the reasons for this change, Kotaku said. Floyd was killed when Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin was caught placing his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. It has placed a spotlight on issues of racism and police brutality.

“I wonder if this is a response to blm [Black Lives Matter],” one player wrote on Reddit. A player in another Reddit thread wrote, “Probably related with [sic] the protests in America.” “’Fortnite’ defunded the police,” another wrote in one thread, while in another thread a player wrote, “Police were abolished in the “Fortnite” canon.”

Some other players guessed those police cars were removed to prevent players from shooting from them if vehicles become drivable. Another wrote, “Later in the season people would be able to drive cars and if someone was shooting you from a police car (if they can do that) that’s a bad thing and it would cause all sorts of controversy.”

Still, several other vehicles have been taken out of the “Fortnite” map, not just police cars, at least in the immediate future. There are a few more weeks before the game reveals if drivable vehicles will be available or returning to the game.

Thus far, Epic Games has not issued a statement regarding it.