The official, exact release dates for Halo War in each respective territory have been announced and, for once, Europe gets a game earlier than the US.

Japan and Asia Pacific get Halo Wars on February 26th, while EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) get it on February 27th. Gamers in the US will have to wait a few days, but will be able to pick the game up on March 3rd.

Halo Wars is the real-time strategy (RTS) game Halo fans have been waiting for, as well as the RTS console gamers need in order to prove that this genre works on a gamepad… that’s according to developers Ensemble, however, so they would say that.

You can find a bunch more information and screenshots over here, including details on the Collector’s Edition version of the game.