When Marvel: Tōkon – Fighting Souls was announced, the fighting game community was hit with a mix of excitement, confusion, and maybe a little heartbreak.
Developed by Arc System Works, the team behind genre-defining titles like Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ, and backed by Marvel Games and PlayStation Studios, Tōkon is shaping up to be a visually stunning, 4v4 anime-style tag fighter, set for release in 2026 on PS5 and PC. And if that sentence alone doesn’t make your ears perk up, you might want to check your pulse.
The game already showcases a strong early roster: Spider-Man, Iron Man, Storm, Captain America, Doctor Doom, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), Ms. Marvel, and Star-Lord. And in classic ArcSys fashion, the art direction is bold, stylish, and straight-up anime-inspired — a surprising but welcome shift for Marvel, encouraged by the studio itself.
But not everyone is celebrating.
For fans of Marvel vs. Capcom, this news hits a little different. Let’s not sugarcoat it — this feels like a nail in the coffin.
The MVC series, while legendary, has been stuck in limbo for years. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite didn’t exactly light the world on fire, and the licensing and creative tensions between Marvel and Capcom made a sequel seem more and more unlikely.
Now, with Marvel going all-in on a new partnership with Arc System Works, Capcom’s biggest rival in the 2D anime fighter scene — it’s hard not to feel like Marvel vs. Capcom 4 just became a pipe dream. The “vs” legacy that defined generations of arcade players may have been spiritually passed on, but not to Capcom.
That hurts.
That said… if Marvel was going to trust another developer to carry the torch of multi-character tag fighting, there’s no one more qualified than Arc System Works.
Just look at Dragon Ball FighterZ. It took one of the most beloved IPs in the world and delivered a tag-based fighter that nailed both casual and competitive play. Flashy supers, dramatic team synergy, and a surprisingly deep meta , ArcSys knows how to balance spectacle with strategy. Tōkon looks like it’s aiming for the same magic.
They’ve even said you can focus on playing one character while the others support you, a welcome nod to newcomers, without alienating competitive players. It’s the kind of system that could pull in both Marvel fans and fighting game vets alike.
Now here’s the wildcard: Tōkon’s timing could seriously shake things up for Riot’s 2XKO. Riot’s 2v2 tag-based fighter has been hyped for years. The studio has taken its sweet time, and while the gameplay looks promising, it still doesn’t have a firm release date.
Meanwhile, Marvel: Tōkon now has the IP power of the MCU, the fighting pedigree of ArcSys, and a locked-in 2026 window. It’s coming for the same audience 2XKO has been courting — and with arguably more momentum.
Then again, maybe we can have both? There might be enough room for both, especially if each carves its own identity. 2XKO has Riot’s lore and team-based synergy at its core. Tōkon brings in iconic superheroes with flashy, four-character chaos. If both hit their marks, we might finally see an era where two new tag-team giants can coexist and push the genre forward.
Marvel: Tōkon is both a bold new chapter and a bittersweet moment for fighting game history. It’s the rebirth of Marvel tag-fighting… just not the way many of us imagined.
For MVC fans, this might be goodbye. But if Arc System Works can capture the magic they brought to Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Marvel gives them the creative freedom to go all-out, Tōkon might be more than just a replacement, it could be the future.
