Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Gives Players An Early Look With Its Upcoming Closed Beta
A beta for one of 2026’s most interesting games is almost here.
Fighting game players have been waiting for a new Marvel vs. Capcom title since 2017’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. While there’s no word of one on the way, the closest possible thing was announced at a recent PlayStation State of Play showcase. Now, players are getting a chance to check it out early.
When its trailer first appeared, you could easily have mistaken Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls for a new Marvel vs. Capcom game. It’s full of Marvel characters, features an art style extremely similar to the original games in the series, and shows off assist characters and tag-team fights, both of which have been featured in the series before. It is, however, lacking the Capcom side, consisting entirely of Marvel characters. Despite that big change, everything that’s been shown off so far has fighting game players excited, and a closed beta on PS5 will give some a chance to play it this September, ahead of the game’s 2026 launch. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will be launching on PC as well, but no beta for PC has been announced yet.
Players get their best chance to try Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls ahead of release in September.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls’ closed beta will only last a short time. Running from September 5 to 7, it will let players try out six different characters in the game’s tutorial and both online and offline matches. Signing up is easy. Just head to the game’s PlayStation Network listing, sign in, and click the Register Now button halfway down the page. That will take you to a short form to fill out, which registers you for the beta. If you’ve already registered for PlayStation’s beta program, that registration will still qualify you for the participant pool, so you don’t need to sign up again. Note that as this is a closed beta, registering doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to participate. Anyone who’s selected to take part will get an email with further instructions closer to the launch of the beta.
Along with the announcement of the closed beta, developer Arc System Works released a new trailer. It doesn’t show off any more of the game than we’ve already seen, instead focusing on building hype for the beta. However, it does show which fighters players will be able to try out. Iron Man, Doctor Doom, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, Storm, and Captain America will be available to select in the game’s beta modes. In addition to the characters available in the beta, Spider-Man and Ghost Rider have also been confirmed for the full game.
The closed beta isn’t the first opportunity that anyone has had to play Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, but it’s the best chance for most players. The game appeared at the Evo 2025 fighting game festival with a playable demo featuring the same characters as the upcoming beta. Ahead of the event, Arc System Works also released a video diving into some of the game’s mechanics. The video shows the skills of the characters available in the beta and goes into depth about the game’s controls and some strategies, making it a good primer for anyone who’s hoping to hop in when it starts in September.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will feature 4v4 battles when it launches in 2026.
Back in its initial announcement, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls revealed that it would increase the size of its player teams to four characters each, making room for far more chaotic battles with more flexible tactics. It was also revealed that Sony initiated the game by reaching out to Arc System Works, developer of Guilty Gear Strive, when it decided to pursue its own first-party fighting game.
Even among players who aren’t deep into fighting games, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has turned a lot of heads. Its resemblance to the classic Marvel vs. Capcom series is a big part of that, as well as its eye-catching style and the sheer boldness of a four-versus-four tag-team battle. Only a small number of people will get the chance to play during its beta, but between Evo and the upcoming preview, players are finally getting a chance to see what could be the most interesting fighting game of 2026.
