'Fornite' players report missing police cars in latest update

Over the past few weeks, regular folks and big businesses showed their support for protests against racial inequality in the United States and in other parts of the world. People are calling out the lapses of their respective governments to address the issue. This was reportedly sparked by the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody. The gaming industry recently came up with ways to acknowledge injustice. It seems Epic Games is doing so by removing police cars in "Fortnite" based on reports.

As violent clashes with the officers have been documented, likenesses, images, and iconography related to them have become sensitive topics. In fact, some are even asking officials to defund the police. The call for reform has definitely reached farther than what was expected as video game developers join the fight. CNN points out that the latest update of the popular battle royale shooter no longer featured police cars.

Even though the vehicles in question are nothing more than purely cosmetic elements, these were originally featured to improve the in-game aesthetics. Epic Games regularly makes substantial changes when it introduces a new season such the controversial "Black Hole" event last year. Hence the missing police cars are speculated by many as a subtle nod from the "Fortnite" team in support of the protests.

"Recent events are a heavy reminder of ongoing injustices in society, from the denial of basic human rights to the impact of racism both overt and subtle against people of color," wrote the studio in an official blog post. "The team is eager to move Fortnite forward, but we need to balance the Season 3 launch with time for the team to focus on themselves, their families, and their communities."

The game studio reportedly kicked off Season 3 with the Device event, which resulted into a waterlogged map. As such, players are presented with a unique battlefield as almost everything is now underwater and "Fortnite" is yet to publicly announce anything related to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, but it appears the removal of police cars might be a step towards something even bigger in the coming weeks.