Over the years, developers have consistently claimed that DRM has no impact on game performance, despite growing evidence to the contrary. Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls is the latest title to fall into this trap, with a cracked version of the game now showing much better performance results, even on lower-end hardware.

PC players began raising alarm bells shortly after launch due to widespread stuttering, inconsistent frame pacing and unusually high CPU usage. Now, early tests of the cracked version of the game appear to confirm that DRM was the culprit. In one example shared by Alpine, the game runs at a locked 60FPS on a laptop powered by a GTX 1650, a GPU that falls below the official minimum PC system requirements.

Another comparison from Nock shows the cracked and uncracked versions running side by side. The DRM-free build delivers higher average frame rates and crucially, a more stable frame rate, while the official release suffers from micro-stutters and erratic CPU spikes.

While Denuvo has long been the centre of DRM debates on PC, Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls does not use Denuvo. Instead, it ships with a DRM solution called Theia, which appears to be developed partly by Sony. Theia forces the CPU to decrypt files during gameplay on a single CPU thread, introducing overhead that can tank performance on mid-range and lower-end systems. This explains the frame pacing issues, stutter and high CPU usage players have been reporting since launch.

Ironically, Theia wasn’t even particularly effective. The DRM was cracked within weeks, whereas some Denuvo-protected games have remained uncracked for months or even years. With the cracked version now circulating and performing significantly better, PC players are once again questioning why publishers continue to rely on heavy-handed DRM that harms legitimate customers more than pirates.

KitGuru Says: DRM-related performance issues have become increasingly common on PC, and Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls is yet another example. If the cracked version runs better across a wide range of hardware, it’s hard to argue that DRM isn’t holding the official release back.

Over the years, Arc System Works has repeatedly confirmed why it is such a beloved name among fighting game enthusiasts. From the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series to games based on other IPs like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, there hasn't been a time when the studio didn't deliver a high-quality product. As such, the announcement of MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls last year was met with unbridled enthusiasm. With the MARVEL Vs. CAPCOM series seemingly done, the new game by the creators of Guilty Gear seemed like the comeback CAPCOM would never have the chance to develop. […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/marvel-tokon-fighting-souls-review-one-of-the-best-fighting-games-ever-made-by-arc-system-works/

[Update - August 10, 1:59 PM] The full patch notes for the August 10 MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls patch are now available. You can find them below. [Original Story] MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls launched last week on PC and PlayStation 5, but the experience differed greatly between PC and console. While the PlayStation 5 version plays flawlessly, the PC version of the latest fighting game developed by Arc System Works leaves a lot to be desired: most systems cannot run the game at a consistent 60 FPS, resulting in numerous issues during both offline and online play. Thankfully, the Japanese developer […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/sony-arc-system-works-patched-marvel-tokon-fighting-souls-pc-broken-performance/

Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls does a lot of things right, but the PC version of the game had plenty of fans concerned during the beta. Unfortunately, those concerns were founded, as the launch day version of the game still had poor performance. Now, Arc System Works is looking to address those complaints through patches. 

When I played Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls during its beta test, I was quite surprised to find myself struggling to hit 60FPS with an RTX 4080 at high graphics settings. Unfortunately, the launch day version of the game didn't fare much better, leading to a wave of negative user reviews on Steam, many of which cited performance issues as the main reason for their negative review.

Now, the first PC performance patch is rolling out to all owners of the game. Crucially, this update aims to reduce the game's CPU usage, and fixes an audio-related bug that was causing sudden frame drops. Essentially, the game was constantly checking for available audio inputs in the background, causing further performance issues mid-match.

The patch also makes changes to auto-detected graphics settings, so players should have more appropriate settings for their hardware selected by default on first-boot, and players will also now have an extra shader compile option, which should help to smooth out in-game performance, just as long as you let the shader process complete itself before jumping into a match.

There will likely be more performance updates in the weeks ahead but in the meantime, these initial fixes should help turn those negative Steam reviews around.

KitGuru Says: Have you played Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls since launch? Has it been running well for you on PC? 

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is one of PlayStation’s more interesting upcoming releases. Developed by Arc System Works in direct collaboration with PlayStation, the console exclusive fighting game is set to launch in under a months’ time on the 6th of August. Ahead of this however, all those interested in checking the game out will be able to do so for free, with an open-beta set to go live next week.

Taking to the PlayStation Blog, Sony detailed the upcoming open-beta for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, writing: “The wait is almost over. The MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls Open Beta is nearly here, and we can’t wait for players to jump into the action.”

Available across PlayStation 5, Steam and the Epic Games Store, the open beta is set to officially go live on the 24th of July at 8AM UK Time, and will remain playable until the 27th – also ending at 8AM.

All those interested will be able to pre-download the game two hours prior to it going live, giving you as much time as possible to play.

Being a beta, Tokon’s full suite of content will of course be locked. That said, users will still have plenty to check out and enjoy, with all of the following being accessible:

• 15 playable characters
• 6 playable stages
• Online Casual and Ranked matches
• Local Versus mode
• Explorable ‘open lobby’ hub world
• Training mode
• 3 Chapters of Tokon’s Episode (campaign) mode

This is far from the first time that Sony has allowed fans to try out Tokon ahead of launch, with various closed tests having taken place since its official announcement.

That said, the game has seen plenty of changes and improvements since, and so it will be interesting to get a clearer understanding of exactly how Marvel Tokon will feel like when the game fully launches next month.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Marvel Tokon so far? Have you been involved in any of the previous playtests? What’s your favourite Arc System Works game? Let us know down below.

PlayStation’s PC / Steam initiative has yielded few successes yet plenty of controversies, with one of the primary issues being many of the games’ PSN requirements – locking out potential players from over 100 different countries in which the service is not active. While it seemed as though this issue had been resolved, the upcoming Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has now run into the exact same problem – currently being blocked in 132 countries.

Marvel Tokon is officially almost upon us, with the tag-team fighting game from PlayStation / Arc System Works set to launch on PlayStation 5 and PC next month in early August. Unfortunately, PC users are once again encountering issues, with SteamDB updates revealing that Marvel Tokon is currently blocked in 132 countries on PC – presumably due to PlayStation Network requirements.

As mentioned, this is far from the first PlayStation game to run into such issues, with Helldivers 2 being the most famous in this regard. In case you forgot, the highly popular co-op shooter did initially launch on Steam globally to great success.

Unfortunately, this was quickly followed by Sony’s PSN requirements, leading to the game no longer working in over 170 countries. After plenty of backlash, Sony reversed course – making this latest decision an odd one to say the least.

All that being said, Marvel Tokon still has roughly a month to go until its release, and so hopefully its current state is merely a matter of logistics and that come the 6th of August, the game is fully available and playable to all.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest move? Will it remain this way by launch, or is this just a matter of behind-the-scenes shenanigans? Let us know your thoughts down below.

As with many fighting games, Marvel Tokon has been slowly but surely unveiling its roster of characters set to be playable come the game’s launch. With the PlayStation-published title a little over one month away from release, the team at Arc System Works have finally unveiled the full line-up of heroes and villains.

Given its 4v4 nature, PlayStation and Arc System Works have been unveiling Marvel Tokon’s character roster in groups of four under different teams. The final team has now officially been announced, with the ‘Samurai Riders’ consisting of:

• Blade
• Deadpool
• Loki
• Ghost Rider

In total, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will have 20 playable characters at launch, with the rest of the roster being as follows:

• Amazing Guardians
  • Ms. Marvel
  • Peni Parket
  • Spider-Man
  • Star-Lord
• Fighting Avengers
  • Black Panther
  • Captain America
  • Hulk
  • Iron Man
• Knights of Doom
  • Carnage
  • Doctor Doom
  • Green Goblin
  • Magneto
• Unbreakable X-Men
  • Danger
  • Magik
  • Storm
  • Wolverine

Given Marvel’s massive roster of hundreds of characters, there are of course tons of notable heroes/villains missing from the line-up. That said, Sony has already promised that the game will get at least one more team of 4 via DLC – with further additions hopefully coming later down the line.

First thing’s first however, we will have to wait and see how fans react to Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls when the full game launches on PS5 and PC on the 6th of August.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this finalised launch roster? Are there any glaring absences? What pairing would you like to see added as DLC? Let us know down below.

Back in June 2025, PlayStation announced 'Project Defiant,' a new wireless fight stick built for use with PlayStation consoles and PCs. A month later, it was officially revealed as FlexStrike, and now, nearly a year from its original reveal, we have an August 6, 2026, release date set for FlexStrike, alongside the launch of Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls that same day. FlexStrike also isn't the only new PlayStation accessory set to launch this year. Announced alongside FlexStrike's release date is the release date for a new 27" monitor from PlayStation that comes equipped with a 2K QHD display with HDR, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/playstation-flexstrike-monitor-pulse-elevate-release-date/