Halo Wars

Halo Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed for the Xbox 360. The game contains an off-line single player mode as well as an online team-based multi-player mode via Xbox Live. It is rumored to allow game-play as either a member of the United Nations Space Command or the enemy Covenant forces. Set in the fictional Halo universe, Halo Wars features Spartan Soldiers wearing an early series of "MJOLNIR" armor, but does not feature Master Chief, the main character from the prior Halo releases, since the game takes place in the past.

Halo Wars details the first encounters with the Covenant in 2531 A.D., acting as a prequel to Halo Combat Evolved. It follows the discovery of the first forerunner artifact and the loss of the planet "Harvest" to the Covenant forces at the beginning of the war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant.

On January 23, 2009, Machinima released the first look at Halo Wars in a video on YouTube called "Inside Halo Wars". The video, just over three minutes long, takes a look at the new views, interface and discusses some of the game controls for the upcoming release.