Just a day after third-party app stores were officially allowed on the iPad in the European Union, Epic Games announced on Tuesday that the Epic Games Store is now available to install on iPadOS, but only if you live in an EU country and have an Apple account registered in that country.
Tuesday's announcement relates to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a set of rules on market fairness and promoting competition. Over the past year, the European Commission has designated several so-called gatekeepers that operate “core platform services.” iPadOS, the operating system that powers the iPad, was a later addition to the list of regulated platforms.
The designation gives Apple six months to update iPadOS to allow EU residents to install alternative app stores, something the company announced Friday would become possible with the release of iPadOS 18.
Epic Games appears to have been well prepared for this moment, having launched its game store for iPads the day after the release of iPadOS 18. Third-party app stores have been allowed on iPhones for several months now (also a result of DMA requirements), and the game maker had already launched the Epic Games Store on iOS.
The iPad version of the Epic Games Store is similar to the iOS version and can be installed from Epic's website. Once the store is installed, iPad users can download and install three games that will be available at launch: Fall Guys, Fortnite, and Rocket League Sideswipe. The games are optimized to run full screen on the iPad.
When the company first brought the Epic Games Store to iOS, it said it would work with other game developers to let them release their games on iOS and iPadOS without going through Apple's App Store, but that hasn't changed and it appears to still be in development.