Sony’s big State Of Play surprise was Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new superhero fighting game from Arc System Works.
While rumours were rampant about a new God Of War spin-off and a reveal for Resident Evil 9, Sony closed its State Of Play presentation with something completely unexpected.
Developed by Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ creators Arc System Works, in collaboration with Marvel Games and PlayStation Studios, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a 4v4 tag team fighter which puts a distinctly Japanese spin on its famed superheroes.
As seen in the trailer, confirmed characters so far include Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, Storm, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, and Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), all with pretty incredible anime-inspired designs.
While past Marvel fighting games like Marvel Vs. Capcom have sported 3v3 match-ups, the unique hook here is the jump to 4v4. However, as noted in a Marvel blog post about the game, this apparently doesn’t mean you’ll have to master four characters to have a fighting chance, with the system promising to be flexible to your playstyle.
Michael Francisco, senior product development manager at Marvel Games, said: ‘Learning four characters is extremely daunting, but the team at Arc System Works has found a way to design a system that adapts to your playstyle.
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‘So you could either duke it out as just the leader and three assists, or you can tag in your assist to swap the leader and change the match-up on the fly.’
How this works in practice remains to be seen, but it certainly looks impressive, with all the flashy animation and anime stylings developer Arc System Works is known for.
It was stated that more characters will be added later (c’mon Squirrel Girl!) and revealed in the ‘coming months’ but whether they’d be part of the starting line-up or something available only as DLC remains to be seen.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls (‘tōkon’ translates to ‘fighting spirit’ or basically someone that’s good at fighting) is set to be released on PlayStation 5 and PC in 2026.
Normally Sony doesn’t release console exclusives on PC straight away, but whether this is the start of a new policy, or just a reflection that it’s not made by an internal studio, is unclear.
Elsewhere in the State Of Play, Sony announced its very first fight stick for PlayStation 5 and PC called Project Defiant, which is set to launch sometime in 2026.
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