Microsoft has announced the official launch dates for Halo Wars, the real time strategy title based on the Halo universe. The game will arrive on March 3 in North America, while in Europe, the title will be available earlier, on February 27. The lucky customers will be those willing to pick up the game in Japan, as it will be released there on February 26.

Halo Wars is an Xbox 360 exclusive and Microsoft is probably hoping that the popularity of the Halo franchise will lead to big sales which will attract more and more real time strategy titles to the console.

The Redmond giant is emphasizing the Limited Collector’s Edition of the game, which will cost 79.99 dollars. It will contain some special items, like a comics book set in the Halo Universe, six trading cards based on the leaders appearing in the game and a crew patch with the Spirit of Fire logo. But the big things Microsoft is including in the Limited Collector’s Edition are three new Halo 3 maps, specifically created for multiplayer. The company is probably thinking that the addition will attract the fans of the first person shooter Halo games to the real time strategy Halo entry.

The title is the last videogame developed by Ensemble Studios, best known for the Age of Empires series, as Microsoft recently dismantled it. There’s already a studio set up which will handle support and patching duty for the game.

Unfortunately, Halo Wars will only allow the gamer to play as the UNSC in the campaign. The Covenant will be playable in skirmish battles and in multiplayer, while the Flood, which is set to make an appearance in the campaign, will not be playable at all. Still, the amount of content Ensemble has created should be enough to satisfy Halo fans.