After the Zero Hour Fortnite live event on Nov. 29, which closed out the previous chapter, players get to find a drastically reworked game. The new season, Chapter 7 Season 1: Pacific Break, just came out with a new map named Golden Coast inspired by the whole summer hollywood surfer aesthetic, featuring new points of interest, biomes, and transportation items like hot-air balloons. 

But perhaps the most dramatic change is how players now reach the island. The legend, the icon, the moment, The Battle Bus is gone. Instead, matches begin with a “Tsunami Drop,” where players surf on a wave of storm energy to land on the map. Alongside this, the season brings refreshed loot pools, new gameplay mechanics like self-revive devices, drivable reboot vans, updated movement and combat options, and a brand-new Battle Pass with new skins, some tied to pop-culture references. 

While the whole thing is a very bold and different move and promises a fresh start for both older players and newcomers, the removal of the Battle Bus and its driver feels like taking away more than just a game mechanic. The Bus was an emblematic part of Fortnite, giving players a moment of anticipation, camaraderie, giving thanks to a non-existent digital man (or woman) that we’ve never seen before, and a sense of shared identity regardless of skill or experience even if you lack it. Replacing that with a tsunami-surf entrance removes that shared tradition. 

For a community built around repeated launch-meets, orbiting, gliding, dropping together, losing the Bus Driver feels less like refreshment and more like taking away part of what made Fortnite familiar, friendly, and iconic. And to be clear they didn’t just remove the bus driver, they killed him off. And then used it as a 6-7 joke. So rude.