THQ Nordic has teamed up with Microsoft for the physical release of Halo Wars 2 on PC and Xbox One. They will make Halo Wars 2 available on Windows 10 and Xbox One both digitlaly and physically.

Strangely, Microsoft is going out of their way to make Halo Wars 2 packaging high quality, both for the standard and Ultimate Editions of the game.

The physical and digital copies of Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition will also come with a definitive edition of the original Halo Wars that will be available as a Play Anywhere title.

The retail edition will come on four DVDs on PC. Crazy large. This applies to both the standard and Ultimate Edition.

There’s a quickstart manual to help you with the controls and a Halo Wars 2 trading card. The Ultimate Edition will be available on February 17th next month for $79.99 and will feature a season pass, four days of early access to the game over the standard edition and the Halo Wars: Definitive Edition digital copy for both Xbox One and Windows 10.

The standard edition of Halo Wars 2 will be available both digitally and physically for Xbox One and PC on February 21st for $59.99.

I don’t know if Halo Wars 2 looks like a $60 game. Personally, the story looks like it could be great. They’ve done a fantastic job of making Atriox feel like a serious threat, much more-so than what 343 Industries have done with the villains in the last two mainline Halo games. However, gameplay for Halo Wars 2 has been hard to come by and they haven’t done the best job exploring why this is a must-own RTS game other than that it’s a sequel to Halo Wars and takes place in the Halo universe.

If you contrast how Microsoft has been marketing Halo Wars 2 with Sega giving Creative Assembly free-reign to utilize community-driven marketing for Total War: Warhammer, there’s a huge difference!

Creative Assembly knocked it out of the park with marketing Total War: Warhammer and making it seem like a must-own game. The way they broke down the roles of each unit, really focused on how they made each battle seem like a cinematic experience, and really hammered home how serious they were about the balance and strategic depth of the gameplay, it made it feel like a real AAA blockbuster release. Microsoft hasn’t done half of that with Halo Wars 2.

Anyway, you can learn more about Halo Wars 2 ahead of its release by visiting the official website.