Go inside the Digital Madhouse with LifePix | A Studio Profile

Living in the hot, sun-soaked state of Arizona, those of us in the gaming industry have little options in terms of checking out some local studios.  Most developer houses are born out of cities where things actually happen after dark, instead of the masses crawling back into our Air Conditioned homes for refuge from the day.  We had Rainbow Studios (a THQ studio most known for their ATV Offroad series, and a few licensed games), but lo and behold THQ just shut down their studio this week.  We have Running with Scissors, a Tucson-based pc developer most known for shock and awe, than really anything else resembling good games.

Read the rest and check out LifePix after the break

Where are you Microsoft? | Preview Program issues

If you've signed up for the Micosoft Preview Program, that includes Last.FM, Twitter, Facebook and the new Zune Marketplace, there's a chance that if you were selected, you may be having trouble actually getting the update.

According to Major Nelson's blog - the first wave of e-mails and updates started going out on Friday, 10/23/2009.  I was one to receive this e-mail, so I booted up my Xbox late Friday night, and nothing.  Thinking they were still rolling things out, I wasn't too concerned, and went to bed.  I didn't get a chance to check again until Sunday - thinking for sure it had to be available now.  I booted up my Xbox - still nothing.  I started to check the other sites/forums, and then went to the Micorosft Connect website to check for any updates there.  I noticed an error that my "console id was incorrect".  Okay I thought, that's strange, I'm sure I entered it in correctly, but there was a link for me to update it, so I did.  Late Monday, the "error/warning" was no longer there, so I thought my update would come.

I get home and boot up the Xbox - still nothing.  Hmmm - what to do?  I checked on the Microsoft Connect site, and there is a slew of comments on the forums (feedback) that I'm not the only one having this exact issue.

I'm not so much worried about the update, I'll get it when I get it; but I'm a bit concerned that there's not been any official statement from Microsoft here.  There seems to be a ton of users who aren't able to get it and suffered the same "errors" as I did.  Now, I know, I'm sure it's still a small number in the grand scheme of things, but I'm trying to get to the bottom of it with our Microsoft contact - so far our requests for info on this subject have not been responded to.

Has anyone else had this problem?  Leave us a note in the comments and lets see if we can get Microsoft's attention.