Sony announces new Arc System Works team fighter collaboration

Feelings among players are rather mixed regarding Sony’s latest State of Play presentation, which took place a few short hours ago, but it did offer a pretty wild announcement seemingly nobody expected: PlayStation Studios and Marvel are working with Arc System Works – the people behind the excellent Guilty Gear franchise of fighting games, among others – on a new title featuring comics superheroes duking it out in a 4v4 tag team setting. It’s called Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls and it’s coming to the PS5 and PC (on Steam and EGS both) in 2026.

The main selling point of this production – apart from the obvious Marvel appeal – is the “4v4” mode that has never been attempted in a fighting game before. Fans of this sub-genre who have played several “2v2” and “3v3” variants (the revered Marvel VS Capcom series spring to mind) can attest to the fact that things can get crazy on screen when special team-tag power moves start hitting left and right, but Arc promises both traditional and simple fighting game inputs to help novice players out. Although large team battles can be mightily exciting, it would be nice to see the company include traditional “1v1″ or ‘2v2” options adjusted accordingly at a later date.

What impresses the most, though, is the general art direction itself that this collaboration between the three companies brings to the table. Arc has done a great job nailing down a unique, Japanese anime- and manga-inspired art style that makes these world-renowned Marvel heroes look totally recognizable but also quite different. Movement, effects and replays all look great too and it’s just easy to imagine this game bringing excitement to living rooms and tournament floors the world over. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will be, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most visually arresting games of next year if this first taste is any indication.

The reveal trailer Sony published includes eight well-known Marvel characters: Captain America, Iron Man, Star Lord, Storm, Miss Marvel, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Doctor Doom. There was also a single stage on offer (New York). They are just a handful, for now, but they are all so incredibly designed, so amazingly detailed, that one can only imagine the work needed to flesh this out to a full character roster and selection of stages as the ones usually offered by other fighting games. One also needs to keep in mind that this is a Marvel-only game (not one that can draw from other rosters like e.g. MvC), so we can expect many more popular super heroes and super villains to eventually appear both in time for launch and as DLC content down the line.

It’s obviously anything but a coincidence that, in the same State of Play presentation, Sony unveiled the first official PlayStation arcade-style fight stick: it’s called Project Defiant, for now, and it’s designed exactly as people would expect of a PS5 peripheral (the following teaser clip makes this rather clear). It features the left-stick and eight-button setup fighting games fans are accustomed to, but the former is “a high-quality digital stick custom designed by Sony Interactive Entertainment”, while the latter use mechanical switches which should feel more responsive (let alone more satisfying to use) than traditional ones.

Of course, this being a modern PS product, Project Defiant also offers a touchpad and wireless connectivity (along with a USB-C wired option) using Sony’s proprietary PlayStation Link technology. It’s the same one found on Sony’s quite good Pulse Explore earbuds and it should provide the kind of high-quality connection needed for practically zero latency between controller and PlayStation (it’s also designed to work with PCs through the included PS Link USB adapter). Project Defiant will be available at some point in 2026 (around the time Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls gets released… probably).

Fighting games have long been considered a niche genre due to their steep learning curve: the amount of training time they demand of players and the dedication needed in order to actually enjoy them both tend to discourage mainstream consumers from sticking with them for long. Team-based fighting games are even more difficult to play in some respects – a niche within the niche, so to speak – because of the frantic on-screen action and the multitude of move lists one needs to be familiar with in order to be effective in both offense and defense.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls looks like a somewhat risky project, but if anyone can pull it off – attracting the interest of a larger crowd than the one fighting games usually address – then it’s Arc System Works. These developers understand the mechanics of the genre better than most, they get what adjustments can be made for newcomers without compromising gameplay depth and they know how to make fighting games look exciting to players as well as spectators. Insomniac and NetEase have already proven (with Spider-man and Marvel Rivals respectively) how successful certain Marvel properties can be in the gaming space when in the right hands, so it would be great to see Arc System Works join them. For some of us, 2026 can’t come soon enough!