For some reason today has been a busy news day for Ubisoft. Today the publisher announced it was taking sign ups to beta test The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, the upcoming and latest game in the long running strategy-sim series from developer Blue Byte Software.

Beta sign ups are being handled by FilePlanet although you will still need an Ubi.com account to participate. The beta will officially begin on January 19 and will consist of the game's single player tutorial levels as well as skirmish maps in both multiplayer or against the game's AI. The game itself is scheduled for release later in 2010.