Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was initially released an as exclusive title for the Xbox 360 on November 12, 2006 in North America, and on November 17, 2006 in Europe (excluding Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating). A Limited Collector's Edition was also released, which included a disc of bonus content and an art book titled Destroyed Beauty that detailed much of the game's back-story. A Microsoft Windows version of the game was created with additional content and released in North America on November 6, 2007, with a Mac OS X version also confirmed.