is comparable with some high—end tv programmes. for the players who have experience with physical events, that has a big advantage because there's lights going on. it's not your home chair, it's not your home desk. i always compare it to a professional football player — he plays on a pitch if it's rain, snowy, and you have to do the same in fortnite. so these may be some of the best fortnite players in the world, but what's really interesting is a new version of fortnite drops the day before this tournament, so there are new weapons, new skills to master, a brand—new area of the island that's unfamiliar to everyone, and so i think that does level the playing field. what they're saying is this really could be anyone�*s game. playing field is not that level — of the 100 players, irina is the only female. we haven't really had girls stand out in the biggest fortnite tournament. fortnite competitive requires a lot, a lot, of effort and we have yet to see some girls making it

to the top. we actually invited five women to come and play here, but, for different reasons, they couldn't show up, unfortunately. how do you think you can make tournaments like this more attractive to women? traditionally, girls were never that interested in games, like in my generation, and i think, you know, more and more women have taken it seriously in the recent years. and i think it'sjust, like, a thing that takes some time and it will definitely come where you're going to see more and more women on the stage. she's definitely holdingi it down for the women. we love reddysh, right? it can be difficult to get your head around the fact that esports is such a big deal, and these players, aged 16 to 27, have certainly found something that they can excel in. and, arguably, these alternate worlds can provide safe spaces from the stresses of being a teenager. when i have problems, ijust put the headset on and it's just like a different type of world. it's kind of playing a different game. you don't have to focus about what's happening in real life.

esports have definitely proved that they are worth the investment of big sponsors — big audiences mean big profits mean big prizes. when i was 15 years old, i went to the fortnite world cup. i played second in duos with my partner and we won about 2 million combined. it takes a lot of work to definitely become a professional gamer because you have to put in so, so, many hours. after eight gruelling battles, the tournament is over and the prize goes to wave vico. what are you going to do with the prize money? i'm going to save the money and i'm going to save up for my graduation. and the 16—year—old austrian is humble and measured in his victory. i'm just at a level of happiness where ijust can cry all day right now. 0k. let's do it. fiery spells... ..sneaky stormtroopers. .. ..and space.

lots and lots of space. a big bunch of new games have been showcased in los angeles this week. ordinarily, this time of year would see the games industry descend on la for one of the biggest events on the gaming calendar, the e3 convention, but it seems e3 has been indefinitely postponed. this is awkward. that didn't stop some of the biggest names in games throwing their own events, though. we are not stopping, whatever lies at the end of this road. ubisoft gave us a glimpse of gameplay from its new star wars open—world adventure, outlaw. as well as a return to the world ofjames cameron's big, blue feline folk in avatar: frontiers of pandora. lam na'vi. living it up with the common folk... xbox had a couple of aces up its sleeve. a larger—than—life richard ayoade gave us an early look at the next game in the fable fantasy franchise.

you see, i'm not here to slay legendary beasts. i'm here to conquer the vegetable. not a euphemism. least surprising of all, we got a long look at the latest game from legendary roleplaying developers bethesda and their epic space exploration title, starfield. with a massive number of customisation options for characters... ..and ships, the ability to play in third orfirst person, a vast array of missions and guests, and over 1,000 planets to visit, everything about this game screams "epic". there's a lot riding on it. i caught up with microsoft games�* head honcho phil spencer to talk about the weight of expectation and what's next for xbox. starfield looks incredibly ambitious. lots of big, blockbuster game launches have stalled due to buggy titles arriving on day one. what kind of pressure is there to get it right with this game? you're definitely right

that the bigger the game is, the more of a task it is to test the quality of the game. i've been playing starfield, as has the team back in redmond since, kind of, mid—late last year, so we've been playing for a long time. we've got a lot of testers on the game. we're spending the right amount of time iterating on both quality as well as the fun, right, in making sure that we've got a great, consistent game. now, microsoft, the wider company, has a significant stake in al. it's notably invested in 0penai, the company behind chatgpt. how do you see ai affecting xbox? one of the areas that we think — well, we definitely are already employing it — is in our safety, security, of our network. when we think about all of the conversations that are happening on xbox live, human moderation is there, but there's only so much capacity we can stay up. from a creative standpoint, you know, i'm always creative—led, i'm not technology—led, and i think we're quite a ways away from these technologies

impacting the core creative, which is very human—led today. phil spencer, thank you very much indeed. like mcewan hall, many arts venues are moving with the times, trying to accommodate new forms of entertainment. for example, i wonder whether you've ever tried immersive theatre, drama productions where you become part of the action and get pulled into the world that you're watching? well, alasdair keen has been to see how one performance in glasgow is using technology more traditionally associated with warehouses to bring a haunted house to life. can you give us a sign that you can hear us, please? please, give us... 0h, did you... did you see that? in this play, things are going bump in the night. this is ghost hunter, a theatre experience where the audience are taking on the role of those finding paranormal activity. going down the way, you are heading in that direction.

the set is a house, complete with living room, kitchen and bedrooms. radio crackles. but the real secrets here isn't the ghosts. it's the tech powering it. this is the behind the scenes of this huge set. it fills this entire warehouse. but look up. you can see lots of little sensors. they allow the crew on the outside to know what's happening on the inside and control the different spooks. turns out ghosts are really difficult to employ. so instead, we've got an array of computers that are hiding behind the walls of the house that deliver a lot of the haunting, along with a lot of people who run around the walls of the house and deliver it as well. but the main element of the game is that these audience members have to hunt down these ghosts, which they do, using a couple of devices that we've called the scanner and the amplifier. and those devices conjure up these ghosts through using a number of different pieces of technology. flashing lights is good. i've got it here. it's searching for the rift,

but the rift is in the house. toby, could you close that door? james, you come straight back in. all right. there's a rift out there. are you thinking what i'm thinking? let's go find it. so this, over here... ..this is a posex tag. this allows the computer to see exactly where you are within the space at any time. these tags are constantly transmitting location information to all the anchors, which use it to work out where they are in the space. and so we can track the audience as they move round the space in this map of the house. door creaks. ok, my heart is still absolutely racing. after that, i've got goosebumps all up my arms. that was a play like i have never experienced before. i'm not sure i'll sleep tonight, but it's been years in the making for the team that put this on and they're really hoping this is the kind of technology that can help to bring new people into theatres.

iam afraid i am afraid that's it for the short cut of click. louis more witchy for you in the full version. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon. hello there. over the last couple of days, for most of us, it has just been a story of blue skies, warmth and sunshine. but slow changes have been starting to take place — in the west of the uk on friday, we saw a bit more in the way of cloud, we saw 1—2 showers and that is because this swirl here on the satellite picture, this area of low pressure is now drawing closer and this will bring the increasing chance of some heavy downpours through the weekend. on saturday, most of the showers

and the odd thunderstorm will be in the west, but there could well be 1—2 further east. i think many eastern counties of england, eastern and northern scotland will see some good spells of sunshine, although with some low cloud plaguing the northern isles. temperatures generally between 20—21; celsius. so at edgbaston for the ashes cricket, i think we could see the chance for a shower. on the whole it will be dry, but there is an increasing chance of showers as we head towards sunday and monday. now, through saturday night, we'll see this low cloud rolling into eastern coasts and some showers continuing out towards the west. a slightly more humid feel to take us into sunday morning. and then for sunday, i think we could see showers and storms breaking out more widely — the centre of this low drifting a little bit closer, this frontal system pushing northwards, that could well focus the showers and thunderstorms, particularly later in the day. so this is how the weather looks on sunday. don't take the position of the showers too literally. they could shift around.

there will equally be some dry gaps in between. but some of the showers will be heavy and thundery, perhaps enough to cause some localised disruption. temperatures down a little bit on where they have been —19—23 celsius. but during sunday night, as this frontal system moves northwards, we could see a heavy, thundery pulse of rain drifting across pretty much all parts of the uk. and then for monday, well, this rain has to clear away from parts of scotland. behind it, sunny spells, but still a scattering of showers and thunderstorms with low pressure still close by and temperatures between 19—24 celsius. now, for tuesday, we're back to sunny spells and showers. could well be that we have a couple of different clumps of showers. could see some heavy thundery downpours towards the southeast corner and some more across the northwest of the uk with maybe a drier gap in between. again, those temperatures in the low—to—mid 205, 21—24 celsius. now, for the middle of the week, signs that this area of low pressure will start to pull away northwards

to allow high pressure to build from the south. this high at this point, not a very well defined feature. so, not a quick change to anything much more settled, butjust a gradual transition with fewer showers, those mostly across the north of the uk with drier conditions further south and it mayjust start to turn a little bit warmer again, highs of 25—26 celsius. but as we head towards the end of the week, it looks like that area of high pressure will eventually start to build more strongly, always with the proviso that there could be a few showers towards the southeast for a time, and areas of low pressure running to the northwest, bringing the greatest chance of showers across the north and the west of the uk. so it could well be that we have quite split fortunes through the end of the week and into the weekend, with the greatest chance for showers towards the north and the west, drier and sunnier conditions further south and east and signs that temperatures could start to climb again, maybe getting towards the high 205 celsius. that's how it's

looking, bye for now.