In a promising indication of Microsoft’s potential future plans, Halo Wars: Definitive Edition is coming to Steam this week. Originally bundled in with Halo Wars 2 as a Windows 10 Store exclusive, Microsoft has loosened the shackles and allowed its most iconic brand onto the Steam store.

The very fact this is happening is probably more exciting than the game itself, which is very much a console friendly RTS-lite with basic base-building that calls to mind Command and Conquer 3 & 4. The port shows Microsoft is open to experimenting with Steam, and happy for its games to co-exist on both platforms. It’s still a long way from Gears of War 4 coming to Steam, but it’s looking a whole lot more likely now.

Anyway, if Halo Wars: Definitive Edition looks your bag, it’s probably a far cheaper alternative than forking out $60 for Halo Wars 2 on the Windows Store. The fundamentals don’t appear to have changed much between the two. Halo Wars originally released for the Xbox 360 seven years ago, so thankfully the official Halo Wars: Definitive Edition system requirements are mercifully light.

Halo Wars: Definitive Edition Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i3-2115C 2.0 GHz or AMD Athlon II X3 460 3.4 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 1 GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 710 or AMD Radeon HD 6570
• DX: DirectX 11
• HDD: 12 GB available space

Halo Wars: Definitive Edition Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5-650 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 615e 3.6 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 1 GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 or AMD Radeon HD 5850
• DX: DirectX 11
• HDD: 12 GB available space 

Just as you'd expect from an old game like this, Halo Wars: Definitive Edition should be a cinch to run on PC. Just about any DirectX 11-capable graphics card in existence should be more than capable of running Halo Wars PC, and any CPU from the last 6 or 7 years. It's difficult to picture many scenarios in which any system bought in the last five years should have any trouble at all with running Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, even Intel HD Graphics 4200 and above should be able to play it without breaking a sweat.

As ever, remember you can always check out how well your PC can run the Halo Wars: Definitive Edition System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Halo Wars: Definitive Edition GPU benchmark chart and we also have a Halo Wars: Definitive Edition Frames Per Second system performance chart for you to check.