The removal of police cars from Fortnite has been confirmed as a reaction to the killing of George Floyd and subsequent worldwide protests.
Fortnite Season 3 started up last week and brought with it a lot of changes to the game's battle royale map. The wall of water summoned by Midas lasted less than 48 hours and its collapse has flooded the island. That has resulted in a far different terrain than players are used to as boats and Loot Sharks have become the order of the day.
The trailers for Season 3 have also revealed that once the water starts to subside, Fortnite's cars will become driveable for the first time. We'd have thought filling them with water would have only made them less useful, but apparently not. Some players assumed that was why police cars had disappeared from Fortnite, as was first noticed and reported on by Kotaku.
The cars hadn't disappeared per se, but had been turned into regular cars ready for when players can hop inside and drive them around. The reason for this change relates to the real world and what is going on in it right now, as was confirmed to The Wall Street Journal by a developmental source.
They revealed that the change was made in reaction to the killing of George Floyd and the worldwide protests his death has sparked. The officer who held Floyd down for almost nine minutes has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. It certainly makes sense that Epic would remove police cars from Fortnite. Once players can drive cars in-game, it's assumed they will be able to be used as weapons. Allowing players to do that with police cars wouldn't be a good look right now.
As for the addition of driveable cars to Fortnite, it feels like it has been a long time coming. It's crazy to think players have been afforded the opportunity to drive boats, helicopters, golf carts, and even sharks before being given the chance to get behind the wheel of a car. We wonder if the reveal of working cars via the subsiding tide will bring with it some sort of racing-based LTM.
Source: Eurogamer, Kotaku, The Wall Street Journal