Ubisoft announced details today about it’s upcoming strategy game, R.U.S.E.. At E3, Ubisoft showed R.U.S.E. in closed doors on a Microsoft Surface table. Now Ubisoft announces that they will be using the multitouch capabilities of Windows 7 to bring it to gamers’ homes.

“Making images interactive is at the core of the video game industry, and over the last few years we have been striving to make this interactivity as intuitive and direct as possible. Today, thanks to Windows 7 and its full multitouch support, the barrier between the player and the image has been removed: they become one”, said John Parkes, EMEA marketing director. “As a strategy game relying on a clean and intuitive interface built around the zoom, R.U.S.E. was the perfect candidate for Ubisoft to demonstrate how multitouch improves and streamlines the way games are played”.

Ubisoft is working closely with Microsoft to make sure the experience is immersive and works well. R.U.S.E. should launch on touch-enabled devices running Windows 7 in Q1 2010.

“Windows 7 was designed with the customer in mind,” said Mike Ybarra, general manager of Windows Product Management at Microsoft. “We are pleased to see how Ubisoft has leveraged multi-touch in R.U.S.E to bring a new and dynamic gaming experience to our mutual customers.”

Here is the R.U.S.E. video from E3:

This is like a DM’s craziest dream right? I’ve come in contact with a Microsoft Surface table once in Seattle during PAX. For those who haven’t, it’s a table with an interactive surface that can be used via touch. It can show pictures from a device placed on it, display data, and can be used for games. But I didn’t even think of this usage which seems the most practical!

The Surfacescapes team at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University came up with a real Dungeons & Dragons demo. This is a tech work in progress but this is pretty cool to see. The video shows character registration, dm scene setup, and the interactive world map.

While this mode is probably way more expensive than most DMs can afford, the breakdown and ease in the menu system may be what Dungeons & Dragons needs to bring in new gamers.

Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Visual Story TAs on Vimeo.