I want to begin by making one thing absolutely clear: it’s perfectly fine to enjoy Fortnite. Many cool people love Fortnite — I mean, Chappell Roan even plays it. It’s undeniably a game with lots of merit that has had a huge impact on the gaming ecosystem.
I, however, am not a Fortnite enjoyer, and I fully resent the fact that I have to play it in order to explore the world of *The Simpsons*, which is one of my all-time favorite television shows (the first 10 or so seasons, anyway).
For a bit of background, I am not only a non-Fortnite player, but a non-shooter player in general. I much prefer turn-based combat and the ability to mull over my choices, rather than fighting for my life while full of panic as bullets come at me from all directions. I already have enough anxiety—I don’t need an entire server full of people whose collective goal is to eliminate me.
Soon after the new Fortnite update released, I hopped into the game and was, just as quickly, full of regrets. I dropped into the map close to the Simpson household, as it was one of the areas I was most eager to explore. I was honestly very impressed with the detail of the house, and very amused by the fact I could even get into a fight with Marge.
However, just as I had started really digging into the details of my surroundings and enjoying myself, the shrinking map forced me to leave. This was a pattern that repeated several more times over the course of the match, in between segments of pure combat-induced panic.
It would be a different story if there were any way to explore the map in a non-combative mode that doesn’t incorporate a constantly shrinking battle zone. Fortnite used to have a Battle Lab mode which allowed players to traverse the map freely, but the feature was axed in 2022.
As far as I can tell, in 2025, the only possible way I could freely load into the Springfield Fortnite map is by starting a private match, which requires the player to be a member of one of the game’s content creator programs.
https://www.polygon.com/fortnite-simpsons-crossover-game-springfield/