Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a mess on PC as Open Beta players report severe performance issues, lag, and other technical problems

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls looks stunning and, based on everything shown so far, appears to have all the ingredients to become a hit among fighting game fans. Unfortunately, players finally getting their hands on the Open Beta have encountered a long list of technical issues on both PC and PlayStation 5.

Today was supposed to be a celebration for the community, but technical problems quickly stole the spotlight. Although Arc System Works’ new fighter launches in early August, the Open Beta went live this Friday, July 24, giving players access to multiple game modes and a roster of playable characters.

The test was meant to help players learn the combat system and experiment with the game’s unique mechanics, but for a significant portion of the community, the experience has been nearly unplayable due to a variety of technical issues affecting both PC and PS5 users.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls’ PC Open Beta is plagued by technical issues

Although Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game is launching simultaneously on PlayStation 5 and PC. PC players were already frustrated after learning that the title would be unavailable in Latin America and dozens of other regions.

Now, the controversy has only grown following the release of the Open Beta.

Players have flooded social media with reports of severe technical problems, including poor performance, online lag, frame drops, stuttering, and numerous other issues that make matches difficult to enjoy.

Many users have also criticized the game’s optimization. According to multiple reports, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls places an unusually heavy load on the CPU. The developers themselves acknowledged that processor usage may temporarily exceed 100% during the first few minutes after launching the game on PC.

Some players report that performance is so poor they cannot even reach the main menu to lower graphical settings in an attempt to improve stability. Even users with high-end gaming PCs have struggled to run the Open Beta properly.

Others say they were forced to drastically reduce graphical settings just to achieve acceptable performance. It’s worth noting that these problems are currently limited to the Beta build, so it’s still unclear whether the final version launching in August will suffer from the same issues.

Players believe anti-tamper protections may be causing the problems

As complaints continue to grow, some members of the PC community believe they’ve identified the root cause of the performance issues.

On X (formerly Twitter), developer WistfulHopes suggested that the Open Beta includes extremely aggressive security measures designed to prevent dataminers from accessing the game’s files or creating an executable capable of bypassing Beta restrictions.

“The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta is extremely protected and very hostile toward non-standard setups. The game executable is packed and encrypted and uses EAC. The content is custom encrypted and includes built-in anti-Wine, anti-emulation, and anti-Windows 10 protections.”

If accurate, these protections could be contributing to the game’s unusually high CPU usage and overall instability on PC.

PS5 players also experienced major issues during launch

Most of the technical problems appear to be limited to the PC version, as the PlayStation 5 build generally performs much better. However, console players faced an entirely different obstacle on launch day.

Earlier on Friday, July 24, PlayStation Network suffered a widespread outage that affected users around the world. For several hours, players lost access to their digital games and were unable to play online across virtually every multiplayer title.

The outage happened just as the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Open Beta went live, preventing many fans from getting past the title screen. Arc System Works acknowledged the issue and confirmed that it was investigating the cause.

Although PSN services have gradually returned in most regions, the incident once again highlights the risks associated with an all-digital ecosystem.

Hopefully, the game’s full release will provide a much smoother experience on both PlayStation 5 and PC.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls launches exclusively for PlayStation 5 and PC on August 6, 2026. At the moment, there are no announced plans to bring the game to Nintendo Switch 2 or Xbox Series X|S.