As A Fortnite Petition Asked, You Can Now Thank The Battle Bus Driver

A new Fortnite update has arrived, and with it, a variety of new content and changes--including some undesirable adjustments to controller aiming on consoles. While that latter point might be the most significant component of the patch right now (albeit one Epic is working to fix), I think it's clear what the truly important news from the release of the 5.30 update is.

While it isn't actually mentioned in the patch notes, players (including Flqmingg on Reddit) have discovered a hilarious addition: the ability to thank the battle bus driver who flies you over the island at the beginning of matches. This is done with a simple button press and displays a message in the lower-left corner of the screen that states "[Player name] has thanked the bus driver." As far as we can tell, this has no actual impact on the game, and it's not as if the bus driver is a real person playing the game. If you're playing on console, you can do this by pressing down on the d-pad; on PC, you'll press the B key.

This is another instance of Epic acknowledging what's going on in the community. Earlier this summer, a "petition" was published on Change.org calling for Epic to add just this feature. "Since I was just a boy I have always loved jumping out of the battle bus, but all this time I have felt something was missing," the petition, attributed to Kody Keddie, read. "And that thing is the ability to thank the driver of the battle bus, he or she is truly a great person and they provide us a great service, I think it is time we can truly appreciate [their] service, don't you agree?"

Although the petition has been removed, its sweet sentiment will now live on in-game--at least for as long as Epic keeps this ability in place.

As noted above, Epic has used updates to wink at Fortnite fans in the past. When theories suggested that Tilted Towers would be destroyed by the Season 4 meteor, it added signs from a party to the roof of one of its buildings. And more recently, it added a gravestone to mark the spot where a rescue attempt involving a golf cart when horribly awry.

Fortnite Update 5.3 News

• Fortnite 5.30 Update Is Live With Portable Rifts, Here Are The Patch Notes
• Fortnite Update's New Score Royale Mode Gives You A Much Different Objective
• As A Fortnite Petition Requested, You Can Now Thank The Battle Bus Driver
• Fortnite's Update Messed With Controller Sensitivity, And Now Epic Is Trying To Undo It
• Fortnite Map Changes: Tomato Temple Replaces Tomato Town In New Update