SEGA Europe today announced that the next iteration of the Total War series, Empire: Total War, will be shipped to stores in North America and Canada from 3rd March and available to buy in stores around the world from the 4th March.

In addition, customers will be able to purchase the game as a digital download from 18:00 GMT on the 3rd of March, with the exception of North American and Canadian customers who will be able to purchase a digital download from 09:00 GMT on the 4th of March.

All retail and digital download copies require activation via Steam.

Here is a list of system requirements for Empire: Total War.

Minimum system specifications:
Operating System: Windows XP 32(service pack 2), Windows Vista 32 OS.
Processor: 2.4 GHz Single Core Intel or AMD equivalent processor.
System Memory: 1GB RAM (XP) 2GB RAM (Vista).
Graphics Card: 256MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card (shader 2.0 or higher).
Sound Card: Directx9.0c compatible sound card.
Windows compatible mouse & keyboard.
15 GB free uncompressed hard drive space.

Check back in March for our review of Empire: Total War.