When I first heard about this thing I really wanted to play Warcraft or Rome: Total War. I can't imagine how awesome it would be to do that.

That would be soo sweet!
Sadly I don't see this happening for awhile. =(

(insert RRod Joke here)

Civilization would be incredible on a large table.

You spilled your drink on my contingent of half-orc raiders, you cheater!

@Amiash is dyslexic: I think its high time we start inserting NULL there.

It would be awesome to be able to play an RTS quickie at an actual arcade with others. But who goes to those anymore?

Next step is to make a vertical touch.

@NoStyle: that's easy. what the real next step is holograpic touch displays.

Was that Sony or Microsoft that announced that card game with the monsters like Yu-Gi-Oh!?

This picture reminded me that I wanted to try that out.

I used to love tabletop arcade games and this would be an awesome way to bring em back. though wouldn't the transition from the 360 output to multi-touch interface create some lag?

But I feel like the biggest plus of Surface is interaction with objects. If you're playing an RTS that's just fingers and you can use any old touch screen or big tablet to do that. In my opinion surface's best use would be for productivity applications.

@Goooman: Warhammer 40k is probably the greatest example of a game working on this with the criteria you mentioned. Although, the screen would have to be much larger (maybe 4 or 6 merged). But the pieces can be RFID'd and terrain is generated by the screen/360.

Though i wouldnt play it. Never liked the cash grab of a hobby.

Even some basic boardgames would be nice....monopoly, chess, checkers, etc....

That Backgammon looks very nice.

I think it'd be epic to play an RTS on something like that. Selecting individual factories/barracks/[whatever they're called in your game of choice] might be a bit difficult if you have pickle fingers or they're small, but that could be worked around.

Being able to just circle a group of soldiers and send them forth with natural movements in shemxy. I'll be looking forward to doing that when I'm 40 and the technology actually comes out.

Microsoft Surface + Xbox 360 = Big Ass Zune Touch.

Add cell-phone with vibration feature and it could be used as a weapon.

STARCRAFT?!

why play games on a crappy LCD? I rather have contrast and the right brightness with quick response and high mhz refresh rate for gaming..rather than playing games while getting finderprints on my 10,000 dollar game controller/LCD screen.

It's a 2D version of Tom Clancy's End War. If you watch the demo vid. that's basically what it is. Also it would be very sweet.