After a long and fruitful State of Play on Jun 02, 2025, Sony ended its Summer Game Fest conference with a game that came out of left field. Created by the team of Sony, Marvel Games, and Arc System Works,Marvel Tokon: Fighting Soulsis a new Marvel fighting game coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2026. Although the developer interview afterward noted that the game was still in production,Marvel Tokon: Fighting Soulsalready looks like a promising merger of Arc System Works’ signature anime fighter stylings with Marvel’s roster of famed superheroes.
It looks like a merger of other things too, asMarvel Tokon: Fighting Soulsseems positioned as the direct successor to theMarvel vs. Capcomseries, which recently returned via one of Capcom’s arcade game collections. This game expands the tag-team gameplay that Capcom’s Marvel crossovers pioneered into competing teams of four fighters, something no other tag fighter has attempted before. Even if promises of simply playing as a lead character with three assists hold true,Marvel Tokon: Fighting Soulsis breaking new groundin the Marvel fighting game space, and that makes its existence all the more shocking.
The State of Marvel Fighting Games Before Marvel Tokon
Those unaware of the history that createdMarvel Tokon: Fighting Soulsmay be confused about why it got top billing in the State of Play, especially right afterGhost of Yoteiteased a gameplay reveal in July. For lack of a better word, this game’s existence feels impossible, to the point where its premise has been joked about for years.Marvel fighting game fansform some of the most passionate communities in the wider FGC, but they’re also just now emerging from a decade where Capcom-made Marvel games felt like they had come to multiple tragic ends.
Marvel vs. Capcom Was Marvel’s Best, But Couldn’t Last
In contrast to their widespread love today,Marvel vs. Capcom 2andMarvel vs. Capcom 3suffered a rough reception at launch.MvC2was just because of how different its new 3v3 format and unusual presentation were, but the launch of the expandedUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, less than a year after vanillaMvC3, really soured some players. Relatively low sales quickly cut off the game’s support, and that would repeat a few years later with the even morecontroversial launch ofMarvel vs. Capcom Infinite. Opinions have risen since, but outlooks on official sequels remain grim.
How Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Brought Marvel Fighting Games Back
Arc System Works Was Perfectly Positioned To Work On Marvel
However, the other side of this tale belongs to Arc System Works, a Japanese fighting game developer that’s smaller than Capcom, but rising in fame with each licensed and original hit it lands. While pushing ahead with itsGuilty Gearseries, ASW partnered with Bandai Namco to createDragon Ball FighterZ,a tag fighter directly inspired byUMvC3. It wasn’t the first or the last imitator, but it’s currently the most successful, and is partially responsible for the FGC rejectingMarvel Infinitewhen they ended up advertising side-by-side. SinceDBFZended its support, fans expected either a sequel or another Shonen Jump fighter to come from ASW next.
What no one expected wasMarvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a spiritual successor to not onlyFighterZandUMvC3, butMarvel Infiniteas well. Capcom fighting game fans have long theorized about the company partnering with Arc System Works to make a newDarkstalkers, reasoning that its medium-pushing 3D animation would be perfect for the cartoonish fighting franchise. Marvel opting to contact ASW about anMvCequivalent through Sony was out of the question, especially withrumors of a NetherRealm Studios Marvel gameon one side, and Capcom’sMvC Collectionhinting about future plans on the other.Marvel Tokon: Fighting Soulscaught everyone by surprise, but Marvel fighting game fans couldn’t be happier.
