Happy 6th Birthday to Four Souls and Announcing the Summer of Isaac!
about 2 months ago – Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 01:03:35 PM

Hello friends,

It’s been a little while. We hope you’re all doing well and have been enjoying dying over and over against The Bloat (we’ve all been there).

We have an announcement to make: The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls is celebrating its SIXTH birthday! This all started WAYYYYY back in June 2018 - and look how far it has come!

We’ve social goaled together. We’ve become gravestones in Edmund’s backyard together (ok, that one wasn’t *all* of us, but still). We’ve even bought Edmund’s bathwater… together?

We have put together a kickass video looking back at the amazing journey we have all been on. We truly couldn’t have done it without you. Every backer. Every comment. Every social goal participant. Every one of you. We can never say it enough: THANK YOU!

Relive the wildest of wild rides here. :)

(Editor’s note: how has it been six years already? You mean to tell me Four Souls is older than Isaac himself? Look how far our little baby boy has come! Sorry don’t mind us, we’re just getting emotional over here…)
 

We have another exciting announcement to make - to celebrate the six year anniversary of Four Souls, The Summer of Isaac starts now!

Coming your way over the summer are nearly 50 new Four Souls cards across 3 different booster packs, plus over a dozen new pieces of merch! We’ve reminisced over the past. Now it is time to get excited for the future!

The first booster pack of the summer, the Edmund Booster Pack, is available for purchase on MaestroMedia.com NOW! There are also pre-orders available (which will ship in July) for two awesome new t-shirts, two magnificent new zip-up hoodies, and an extremely cool new water bottle. Check out this stunning new merch at MaestroMedia.com as well! Keep an eye out for other merch pieces dropping throughout the summer!

All 3 new booster packs are here to stay and are permanent additions to our store! That means you’ll be able to get all 3 at the same time to save on shipping starting in August. You can even pre-order a bundle containing all 3 booster packs today, which will then be delivered after the final booster pack is revealed in August. We hope this bundle is something our international fans will find particularly useful as we look to improve things for you all as much as possible.

Keep your eyes peeled on Edmund’s Twitter account (@edmundmcmillen) and the Maestro Media Twitter account (@TheMaestroTeam) for daily card teases for the Edmund Booster Pack! There will also be merch showcases and competitions running through the summer, and teases for the second and third booster packs starting in July and August - so make sure to keep checking back daily!

Our first Edmund Booster Pack card reveal was Stacy from Mewgenics, and her starting item, Unstable DNA! Isn’t she a cutie!

Since then, we've teased more exciting new cards from across a range of Edmund's games. Here is every card reveal so far for the Edmund Booster Pack. Remember to check Twitter and/or FourSouls.com for further new reveals each day!

Here’s to an amazing summer!

~The Maestro Team
 

Shipping Update #13 / Isaac Hoodies! / New Maestro Project
10 months ago – Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 01:01:58 PM

Hello Friends,

To start with an important reminder: If you have not received your items yet and you have not engaged our support team, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reach out to us HERE. With the exception of a few reshipments to replace damaged or missing components, our fulfillment partners are reporting near completion. If you haven't got your stuff yet don't worry, however, we'll get it sorted for you - just reach out to us!

Fulfilment

Oceania: We are awaiting official confirmation from Aetherworks, but we believe that all splitships/reships are done or nearly done in the region. The last update we had from Aetherworks was that there were 70 left to go out last Friday. Additionally, we identified 7 backers that filled out their surveys late. We are working to get those fulfilled with Aetherworks ASAP.

EU/UK: Whole item reships are almost entirely finished (bar just a few stragglers), and GamesQuest are now working on finishing up individual component reships - that means things like empty boxes and individual cards/decks of cards. We have been told these should have finished being sent out by the end of next week. Additionally, we identified roughly 60 backers that filled out their surveys late or need an updated address as a Russian/Ukrainian backer. We are working to get those fulfilled with GamesQuest ASAP and reaching out to backers who need to update their address.

US: The US has been declared complete outside of address holds. We will reach out to backers again today for address confirmation. If you are in the US and are still missing something, or have not yet received your things, please let us know!

Asia: VFI have reported that each of their regions have completed fulfillment. Similarly to the US, if you have not yet received your things, please let us know!

Secret Store: There are less than 10 secret store orders left to send in the EU/UK! These final few orders are awaiting things like addresses to be corrected when the system hasn't recognized the address as valid for shipping. We will reach out to these fans individually to resolve these issues. The US secret store orders are also set to finish going out this week.

We want to thank all of our partners who helped us with quick and expeditious fulfillment of these secret store orders!

Shirts: There are a few cases where people are still waiting on an individual t-shirt or two. In these cases, we will now be split shipping the missing t-shirts directly from the US.

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New Merch!

The Kickstarter might be over, but the awesome Isaac merch is not! Check out this gorgeously unsettling Famine t-shirt with art by the wonderful Sony_Shock!

Until the end of September (Pacific time US), you can also grab yourself a free bonus alt art Famine card with any order over $25, featuring the same stunning art as the t-shirt! Join us in celebrating Isaac's birthday in style!

If the awesome new t-shirt wasn't enough, we have also just launched pre-orders for a selection of hoodies featuring fan-favorite designs from The Unboxing of Isaac - just in time for the colder months ahead! You can check them out here.

These beauties will be shipping in early November 2023 - and if you snag one before September is finished, your order will even come with a Famine promo card!

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New Project!

On another note, Maestro Media have just launched a new campaign on Kickstarter -  Hello Kitty: Day at the Park!

Join Hello Kitty and Friends for an adventure-filled day exploring the park in this brand-new and exciting tile-laying, token-collecting, adventure-completing tabletop game from Maestro Media and Sanrio, featuring beloved characters from Hello Kitty! A whole host of awesome people have worked hard to bring this project to life. You can check it out over on the Kickstarter page, and - if you'd like - join us for all the fun the next month will bring!

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That is it from us for this update! As always, please do just reach out to us (here!) if you need any help - or even if you just want to say hi! We're always keen to hear from our fans, and to help everyone out whenever we can.

~The Maestro Team

Shipping Update #12
about 1 year ago – Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 07:18:31 AM

Hello Friends,

If you have not received your items yet and you have not engaged our support team, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reach out to us HERE. Our fulfillment partners are showing near completion, but your comments show that people are still missing initial orders. 

Below is the list of split shipped items we know are still needing to ship per region.

Asia (In Transit to Hubs): Coin rolls, Signed Prints, Signed and Pooed Prints, Isaac Keychains, NSFW Tapeworm, and Shirts. VFI has also provided us with this link for folks who have questions. Scroll down to the Binding of Isaac section to learn which hub is delivering your game.

Australia (In Transit to Hub): Coin rolls, Signed Prints, Signed and Pooed Prints, Isaac Keychains, NSFW Tapeworm, Retail Requiem - English, Retail Big Boi Box - English, 3 Figures Collection, Uncut Sheets, and Shirts.

UK/EU/ROW (In Transit to Hubs): Four Souls + - Spanish and Shirts.

United States (Preparing for Transit): Tapeworm NSFW, Signed Print, Ultimate Collection Retail - French, and Shirts

Additionally, as we are nearing the point where everyone will have their goods in hand, we are now turning our undivided attention toward beginning to fulfill any outstanding reship requests in the various regions so we can put a nice bow on a fantastic campaign! Again, if you have questions, please reach out to us HERE.

Draw You As Isaac - 3 emails have been sent and we've received 36 responses. All 36 have been mailed out through my local FEDEX office and are on their way. If you have not responded yet, please check your SPAM/Junk folders for an email about "your draw you as isaac pledge."

Satan Heads - All were shipped several weeks ago and should have arrived safe and sound to everyone!

We hope those of you that have your stuff have been loving it so far, and we thank anyone waiting on a reshipment of any item for their patience.

Please do reach out to us if you have any questions or issues as above - our support team are always happy to help.

See you in the next update! Did we mention reach out to us HERE if you need help?

~The Maestro Team

Shipping Update #11
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 05:27:47 PM

Hello Friends,

We want to start this update with a huge thank you to all of our fulfillment partners for working through the challenges of delivering over 100,000 shipments around the entire world. It is no easy feat and they've been working tirelessly to get everything out.

We've got some big updates:

Italian Language Games - The missing games have been found and we're told the EU fulfillment center has begun shipping them out! We don't have a wrap date for this, but with about 350 orders to go out, we expect fulfillment will spill into next week.

Oceania Fulfillment - After that email last week, we're happy to say that Aetherworks has begun shipping out those remaining packages.

UK/EU Fulfillment - After a pause, the remaining packages are boxed and we're told they have started shipping out. The expectation is these will wrap in the next 2 weeks or so.

Split Shipping - Packages are now being sent out to backers that might be missing a few items. The relocating and/or reprinting of all items is nearing completion, see below:

• Pins - these were reprinted after damages. They have been successfully printed and now just need to be shipped to the fulfillment centers.
• Dick Knots - Gamesquest is doing a new inventory count across the different fulfillment centers. We should have more news soon.
• Shirts - these were reprinted after damages. They also just need to be shipped to the fulfillment centers.
• Rolled Coins - these have been relocated and should be ready to start going out soon.
• Satan Heads - packages with the Satan Heads are going out this week and next week.
• Signed Prints - these have been relocated and should be ready to start going out soon.
• Draw You As Tier - these are in our possession. At the moment, we are just waiting on appropriate shipping containers to arrive so they can make it to you undamaged.

If your order arrived with one of the above items missing, we want to reassure you that we're aware that you still need those items and will ship them out as soon as they are available. You do not need to message us letting us know.

Asia Fulfillment - There were about 100 orders on hold due to missing phone numbers, but these have been sorted and will ship soon. Fulfillment in Asia is ongoing and should be wrapping soon.

Late Pledges & Shipping Issues - If you did not complete your Backerkit survey until after we announced that surveys were closing, your pledge will not have shipped yet. We will be delivering late pledges to the fulfillment centers after they've completed delivery of the initial orders. This means if you didn't complete your survey until after February 3rd 2023, your games will be in the next round. Don't worry, though - you will still get your stuff!

Everywhere else - Everywhere except those places listed above continues as normal. All remaining fulfillment centers are reporting 99% completion of the initial wave, with the remaining 1% being errors in addresses and such. We are working to resolve any orders that fall into this category.

Q&A

“My tracking stopped working or my package was returned to sender”

• Reaching out to the fulfillment center is going to be the quickest way to resolve these issues. You can contact us, but we're just going to then contact the fulfillment center to work on getting things moving and end up playing telephone between our emails to them and our responses to you.

"I pre-committed and only received Ultra Pride or Corrupted Data not both"

• Please, please, please check the sleeve. Both cards are in the same sleeve and in 99% of the cases the second card has simply been hiding behind the first!

"Did I miss my tracking number email?"

• If you think you may have missed a tracking email, please go here and look: boirequiem.backerkit.com/backer/review. If there is not a tracking number there, we also do not have a tracking number for your pledge yet.

"My tracking label says label created and has been for a while"

• If your tracking number has been on "label created" for a while and/or has missed the estimated delivery, we apologize. The estimated delivery is automatically added by the courier (FEDEX/UPS). We are at their mercy for how quickly they decide to scan our packages into their system. For Canadian backers, this is because your label was created when the boxes were put on the truck. Those tracking numbers will start showing movement as soon as the truck is released from customs.

"My xxxxxxx is damaged in some way"

• Please reach out to https://maestromedia.com/pages/contactus. Picture verification is required, so please respond to that initial email that tells you we got your request with some photos to help speed up the process. We will help you out as quickly as possible.

Step by step, package by package - we are getting there! We are eternally grateful for your patience as we work to resolve these final few issues.

To those of you still waiting - hopefully there will be good news in the near future. We had a good number of the remaining orders go out last week, and we anticipate that next week will be much the same.

If you do have any issues, please do reach out to us - we always want to help! Our small support team are still working overtime to try and bring the backlog down, but it is taking us longer than normal to reply to everyone at the moment. We apologise for this, and hope that it will improve soon. In the meantime, we just want to reassure you that we will reply to every email we receive, and to thank you for your patience!

We'll be back when we have some more updates to share. Until then, keep being awesome.

~The Maestro Team

Shipping Update #10
about 1 year ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 11:53:57 AM

Hello Friends,

As of this writing, we have been given tracking numbers for 96% of all Kickstarter shipments and 80% of all Backerkit pre-orders. We know how frustrating it is for the 4,000 folks who have not gotten everything yet. We are spending each and every day talking with the fulfillment centers, trying to get them to push out the remaining unfulfilled orders, as well as the 1,500 or so reshipments we have for damages. We are working as fast as our team can to finish this up for everyone. Here's what we have for updates:

Late Pledges & Shipping Issues - If you did not complete your Backerkit survey until after we announced that surveys were closing, your pledge will not have not shipped yet. We will be delivering late pledges to the fulfillment centers after they've completed delivery of the initial orders. This means if you didn't complete your survey until after February 3rd 2023, your games will be in the next round. Don't worry, though - you will still get your stuff!

We're also beginning to work through the few shipments that had errors. This can happen for a huge variety of reasons, but what it means is that the courier who would be delivering the game has rejected it for some reason, usually an issue with addresses. If you are in this boat, we are in the process of emailing to ask for further information (if needed). The message will come from someone with an @maestromedia.com email address. If it's an issue we can fix without emailing (such as changing an ä to an a) we will simply make that change to expedite those orders.

Split Shipping - Packages are now being sent out to backers that might be missing a few items. This is whilst we reallocate things between different fulfillment centers and remake some goods that were damaged in transit. If you receive a package that is missing:

• Pins
• Dick Knots
• Shirts
• Rolled Coins
• Satan Heads
• Signed Prints
• Translated Games (In the US we're waiting on a delivery of all languages, EU is short of Italian games, and a few French and Spanish games)

We want to reassure you that we're aware that you still need those items and will ship them out as soon as they are available. You do not need to message us letting us know.

Italian Language Games from GamesQuest: We're waiting on one piece of information, but we believe the games have been located by GamesQuest and should begin shipping soon. In our next update we will have a more concrete plan. Note: There are a few French and Spanish games this also applies to.

Damaged Items & Requests: The team is working through emails and requests as quickly as possible, but at 120,000 packages being delivered over the past 2 months, that is a lot of requests. We are diligently working through each email we receive, but we are approximately a week behind. Please be patient, we will respond to everyone and make sure we get everything sorted.

Pins: Our manufacturer has told us that pin reprinting will be finished next week. From there we will need to air freight the pins to the various fulfillment centers – which would mean that in total we are 3-4 weeks from those being ready to ship to backers.

Shirts: The shirts that needed to be reprinted have been completed as well. Since these are much bulkier, shipping to the fulfillment centers will be slower, but we're again about 4 weeks from those being ready to ship to backers.

Satan Heads: These should begin to ship in about 2 weeks!

Draw You As Tier Sketches: We have received these from Edmund and once we find suitable packaging to ensure they don't bend in transit, we will begin shipping them out.

Australia: For the patient 190 of you that have been waiting, we were surprised by that email that was sent out by Aetherworks and are currently in an email chain trying to figure it out. Shipping was supposed to start on the 29th, we're working to make sure it starts as soon as possible.

US Fulfillment: The remaining pre-order games will ship by next week. The only items remaining after that point would be the split ship items we've been mentioning in previous updates, as well as a few localized language copies that still need to be received and sent.

CA Fulfillment: This is reported as finished except for items needed that are listed above. As soon as those are ready, the remaining shipments will go out.

Asia Fulfillment: Fulfillment is ongoing, all packages have reached the different fulfillment hubs within Asia and we've seen reports and received tracking for about 50% of all shipments. There are a few dozen folks in China that have been emailed by VFI asking for their address that have not responded. Please check your email and spam folders for a message from VFI and respond. They can also be reached HERE if needed.

UK/Europe/Rest of World Fulfillment: Gamesquest is still working through issues that have held up specific orders. The process is ongoing. Please see the note about Italian, French, and Spanish games above. We're also waiting for Gamesquest to begin shipping our replacement parts, those should be coming shortly.

Q&A

“My tracking stopped working or my package was returned to sender”

• Reaching out to the fulfillment center is going to be the quickest way to resolve these issues. You can contact us, but we're just going to then contact the fulfillment center to work on getting things moving and end up playing telephone between our emails to them and our responses to you.

"I pre-committed and only received Ultra Pride or Corrupted Data not both"

• Please, please, please check the sleeve. Both cards are in the same sleeve and in 99% of the cases the second card has simply been hiding behind the first!

"Did I miss my tracking number email?"

• If you think you may have missed a tracking email, please go here and look: boirequiem.backerkit.com/backer/review. If there is not a tracking number there, we also do not have a tracking number for your pledge yet.

"My tracking label says label created and has been for a while"

• If your tracking number has been on "label created" for a while and/or has missed the estimated delivery, we apologize. The estimated delivery is automatically added by the courier (FEDEX/UPS). We are at their mercy for how quickly they decide to scan our packages into their system. For Canadian backers, this is because your label was created when the boxes were put on the truck. Those tracking numbers will start showing movement as soon as the truck is released from customs.

"My xxxxxxx is damaged in some way"

• Please reach out to https://maestromedia.com/pages/contactus. Picture verification is required, so please respond to that initial email that tells you we got your request with some photos to help speed up the process. We will help you out as quickly as possible.

We really do appreciate how frustrating it is for those of you still waiting. We hope that providing an update like the above helps somewhat. We hope that soon your stuff will be in your hands - we know that will help a lot!

Just to reassure everyone waiting once more: you will get all your stuff! We are working hard to ensure that happens as quickly as possible, but there is no doubt at all that it will happen.

Our support team are also working day and night, but the volume of emails at the moment means it is taking longer than usual for the relatively small team to get back to people. Please do bear with us, we will get round to replying to each and every email we receive.

We'll be back with more updates when we have them - and thank you all for your patience in the meantime!

~The Maestro Team