The open beta for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was supposed to be a victory lap before launch. Instead, the 72-hour test that opened July 24 turned into a stress test of a different kind, with PlayStation Network buckling on day one and PC players reporting that the game was hammering their processors.
A rough opening on both platforms
According to VGC, PlayStation Network went down within hours of the beta going live, leaving PS5 players staring at error screens (error code WS-116486-6 on console) and PC players unable to sign in, since the Steam version still requires a PlayStation account. VGC linked the trouble to a short Amazon Web Services outage, noting PSN remained unavailable for several hours afterward. It was unclear whether the beta itself contributed to the downtime. The official Marvel Tokon account acknowledged the login and network issues and pointed players to its Discord for updates.
Once PSN recovered, Kotaku reports that PS5 players generally seemed to be enjoying the fighter. PC players were another story. Kotaku's Lewis Parker described "hundreds of posts" across X and Reddit complaining about performance, with the game running oddly CPU-hungry. Testing on a rig with a Ryzen 7 7700X, an RTX 4080, and 64GB of RAM, Parker found Marvel Tokon hogging upwards of 95 percent of his CPU even on medium settings, along with six separate versions of the PlayStation PC SDK Runtime booting alongside the game.
Letting the game run for around 30 minutes eased some of the strain, which fed theories about shader compilation. But online matches sent CPU usage climbing back to 90 percent, which Parker suspected could be tied to anti-cheat or a temporary anti-datamining measure. The developers posted their own statement, saying they are "aware of the gameplay and performance issues currently affecting the PC version" and are "actively investigating."
What's actually in the beta
As Rock Paper Shotgun details, the beta runs until July 27 and does not require registration or a PlayStation Plus subscription, just an internet connection and a PlayStation account. That account requirement is likely tied to the long list of countries where the Steam version isn't available for purchase.
The test includes 15 of the 20 launch fighters, among them Blade, Iron Man, Black Panther, and Magneto, spread across six locations. Players can also try the open lobby, a training fight, and the first three chapters of the narrative Episode Mode's Amazing Guardians storyline.
Phoenix Cyclops leads the DLC roster
Alongside the beta, Arc System Works revealed the first post-launch DLC fighter: Phoenix Cyclops, one of four characters plus a new stage planned for the game's "year one" additions this autumn. Producer Takeshi Yamanaka said the design "draws inspiration from his Phoenix Five incarnation from Avengers vs. X-Men," combining Cyclops' Optic Blasts with the Phoenix Force, so "expect Scott Summers to bring the heat."
What it means for launch
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls launches August 6, which leaves the team a narrow window to sort out the PC performance issues and the PSN dependency that took the beta offline on day one. PS5 players may be in better shape, but if you're eyeing the Steam version, Kotaku's advice is worth heeding: wait for the reviews before buying on day one.
