Ensemble Studios' Xbox 360 exclusive RTS, Halo Wars has had release dates in Europe and the US confirmed finally. The former gets the game on February 27th 2009, while the USA has to wait until March 3rd, luckily in the same year.

Don't know about Halo Wars? Well, you can either ceck our Halo Wars page here or read this:

"Giving a different perspective on the Halo universe is Halo Wars, a real time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, the developer behind the best-selling Age of Empires series. Taking the action away from the frenetic first-person action of the Halo trilogy, Halo Wars puts players in charge of entire units.

The game takes place 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, dropping players on a planet in the Epsilon Indi solar system on a planet called Harvest. A mysterious relic has turned up there, one that the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) wants and that the Covenant will go to any lengths to stop them from acquiring."

Details of the special edition pack were released last month, but bear a second look.

Once the game is completed, however, Ensemble Studios is to be closed with some staff being retained to handle HW matters. Here's what Halo Wars senior designer, Bruce Shelley had to say on the matter.