Marvel Tokon Devs Confess Regaining Trust After Fumbled PC Launch Will Be 'Extremely Challenging'

Arc System Works has apologized for the troubled PC launch of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and admitted it will now be "extremely difficult" to regain player trust.

Producer Takeshi Yamanaka offered a post-mortem on the release of the studio's new superhero fighting game during an interview with VGC. He noted that, when it comes to the content itself, fans have mostly nice things to say about Marvel Tokon, but the positivity isn't being shared by users across all platforms.

"They’re playing matches every day, they’re in training mode, they’re coming up with new combos, and we see them posting those on social media," Yamanaka said. "However, at the same time, unfortunately, in the PC version of the game, there have been in-game issues experienced by many players, which we really apologise to the player base for all of these problems."

Marvel Tokon brought tag-team gameplay to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S August 6, 2026. While reviewers largely lobbed high scores its way (IGN gave it a 9/10), those on PC instead took to Steam to leave reviews of their own.

Arc System Works' new fighting game plummeted to "Mixed" reviews in all languages less than 24 hours after launch as players reported stuttering issues and forced PlayStation sign-in requirements. The weekend following its release on PC was only plagued by more negativity as the problems persisted, with the only message from the studio at the time being its promise to "investigate" reports of "performance issues." The state of Marvel Tokon on PC reportedly was so bad that even famed fighting game community content creator Maximilian Christiansen (a.k.a. Maximilian Dood) uninstalled the game in front of thousands of livestream viewers.

Arc System Works was able to speedily push out an update the following Monday, fixing many of the performance issues players had reported. But while Steam reviews have slightly rebounded, it's clear there's a long road ahead not only for Marvel Tokon but for the studio itself.

Yamanaka said "the team is hard at work to continue working on resolving remaining issues," noting two of the patches that have arrived since that early August release date. He also admitted that getting the Marvel fighting game in tip-top shape is only part of the battle.

"I do think that it's an extremely challenging task that we need to undertake," he said when asked about regaining trust, "where we sincerely want to put all of our effort forward to create an environment where the players can experience this game that we’ve worked so hard to create, and that we do have a lot of confidence that the game itself will be really fun for them."

Yamanaka again apologized for Marvel Tokon on PC after it "created a lot of trouble for the players." He and the rest of the team are hoping the community will stick around not only for those incoming fixes but more for the game itself, too.

"I would like to just say that I truly appreciate every single player who purchased the game around the launch," he added. "And to some players on the PC who were kind enough to purchase the game, but then they experienced these issues and were unable to play the game in its best way, and maybe left the game for the moment or even refunded. I would just like to express my sincere apologies for all of those issues that they’ve experienced.

"I do feel that it will not be an easy task at all to regain the trust that we've lost from this. However, this is an issue that we're facing head-on, and we’re trying to tackle it directly to try to continue working with all that we have and to provide an environment where players will be able to smoothly experience the game.

The Arc System Works producer continued, saying, "I feel that is the most that we can do." As additional updates are launched, he said, "all we can do is do our best and pray that that sentiment will reach the player base."

Either way, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is just getting started. DLC content is confirmed to be in the works, with Phoenix Cyclops already announced as a playable character set to join the roster this fall. Dataminers uncovered five more potential fighters earlier this month.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).