Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Open Beta Runs July 24-26 With 16 Fighters, Six Stages
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls opens its Open Beta on July 24, giving players a free 72-hour window to test the 4v4 tag-fighter on PS5, Steam and the Epic Games Store before its August 6 launch. Sony Interactive Entertainment confirmed on the PlayStation Blog that the trial includes online Ranked and Casual matches, local Versus play, a story preview and a chunk of the eventual 20-strong roster.
72-Hour Window Opens July 24 Across PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store
PlayStation, Arc System Works, and Marvel Games are opening Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls up to PC and PS5 players ahead of its August release, running an Open Beta on the last weekend of July. The test is scheduled to run from July 24, 12:00 a.m. PT / 3 a.m. ET to July 26, 11:59 p.m. PT (July 27, 2:59 a.m. ET). No pre-order or beta code is needed, as registration isn’t required — players simply download the Open Beta from their platform store, with pre-downloads available two hours before the servers go live, and no PlayStation Plus subscription needed.
For fans on the other side of the Pacific, the timing lines up neatly with local evenings rather than the middle of the night. Using the confirmed 12:00 a.m. PT start alongside the 8:00 a.m. BST and 4:00 p.m. JST times that Sony gave alongside the PT window, the beta effectively opens around 5:00 p.m. AEST in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and roughly 7:00 p.m. NZST in Auckland and Wellington on July 24 — a Friday-evening kickoff for most of the region.
16 Fighters and Six Marvel-Themed Stages Available to Test
The trial roster grew shortly before launch. Players will be able to play 16 of the 20 characters available at launch, while Hulk, Carnage, Loki and Deadpool remain locked until the full release. The roster was initially announced to be 15, but recently bumped to 16 with the inclusion of Green Goblin, joining a lineup that includes Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Storm, Magik, Wolverine, Danger, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, Peni Parker, Ghost Rider, Blade, Doctor Doom, and Magneto.
Read also: Green Goblin Joins Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Open Beta as Surprise 16th Fighter
Matches will take place across six explorable stages, including the day and night versions of Marvel’s New York, Savage Land, X-Mansion, Knowhere, and Wakanda. Arc System Works, the studio behind Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ, built the game around a 4v4 tag system where teams share a single health bar and gradually unlock their full lineup mid-match.
Episode Mode Gives an Early Look at the Amazing Guardians Story
Beyond the fighting itself, the beta doubles as a first preview of the campaign. The Open Beta also provides the first chance to experience Episode Mode, letting players work through the opening three chapters of the Amazing Guardians storyline, which follows Spider-Man as he assembles a team to investigate a mysterious threat approaching Earth through motion-comic storytelling and battles. Sony also confirmed the Open Beta will include full localisation support, with voice-over and text available in multiple languages, alongside additional text-only options.
The company says the build also folds in gameplay refinements and mechanical improvements based on feedback gathered during last year’s Closed Betas, giving returning testers a noticeably different feel from earlier sessions.
Ranked, Casual, Versus and an Open Lobby Round Out the Modes
Outside the story chapters, the weekend gives a full spread of ways to fight. Players can jump into online Ranked and Casual Matches in Battle Mode, play against the CPU or a friend in local Versus, learn the core mechanics in Start-Up Battle, practice and perfect techniques in Training Mode, and pick from one of many chibi avatars to explore the Open Lobby and pick up matches with other players.
With access to a broad selection of launch characters and stages, testers can learn moves, combos and strategies ahead of the full game’s release on August 6. That full release brings the complete 20-character roster, additional stages and the remainder of the campaign that the beta only samples.
What the Free Weekend Means Ahead of August 6
For a genre where demos are usually stripped down to a handful of fighters and a training room, this is an unusually generous send-off before launch, giving Sony and Arc System Works a live-fire test of matchmaking and servers before paying customers arrive. With 2XKO and Invincible VS also circling the tag-fighter space this year, a smooth, content-rich beta could be the difference in convincing undecided PS5 and PC owners to commit at launch rather than wait for reviews.
No regional restrictions have been flagged for New Zealand or Australia, and with cross-play confirmed between PS5 and PC, local players queueing during the AEST or NZST evening windows should find a healthy pool of opponents from the moment servers go live.
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