Marvel Tokon Will Be Unavailable in 132 Countries, Including One Hosting Evo

PlayStation is facing some serious backlash lately. Following its recent decision to halt physical game releases for its platform, it was revealed over the weekend that the upcoming fighting game, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, won’t be available for purchase in 132 countries on PC.

While Sony hasn’t officially confirmed this, Steam metadata indicates a long list of nations where the game will be inaccessible, including most of Africa and Southwest Asia.

This move likely ties into Sony’s contentious PlayStation Network linking policy for PC. In 2024, the company briefly tried to enforce a requirement for Helldivers 2 players to link their Steam accounts to a PSN account. This policy was intended to be in place at launch but was disabled due to technical issues. However, since PlayStation Network is unavailable in many regions, players in those areas risked being unable to access games they had already bought. After facing significant backlash, Sony ultimately scrapped the PSN requirement for that title.

This latest announcement follows a wave of over 200,000 negative reviews on Steam.

Last year, Sony made PSN linking optional for some of its PC titles, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Although these are all single-player games, this shift sparked hope that the company might ease its PSN requirements for PC. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be happening.

Over the weekend, users voiced their frustration with Sony’s decision, criticizing the idea of partnering with the renowned fighting game studio Arc System Works and securing the Marvel license only to restrict access to the game.

“I had the pleasure of playing @Verix_7 at Evo on Tōkon,” tweeted user ChromeAlchemist. “He’s from Senegal. Senegal is one of the 132 countries unable to buy Marvel Tōkon! If fighting games don’t stay global, the next future champion could be blocked before they can even try to compete!” They also shared a petition urging Sony to reconsider its stance.

The outrage is amplified by the fact that fighting games thrive on global competition. Many top players from this year’s Evo tournament in Las Vegas hail from countries that won’t be able to purchase Marvel Tōkon: Arslan Ash (first place in Tekken 8, Pakistan), MenaRD (first place in Street Fighter 6, Dominican Republic), Verix (second place in Guilty Gear Strive, Senegal), and BlueSkyGuyBSG (fifth place in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Haiti). While Marvel Tōkon would typically be a highlight at next year’s Evo Morocco tournament, its unavailability in that country raises questions about how this will unfold.

Fighting games can be somewhat niche compared to other genres, primarily because mastering them demands countless hours of practice (and a lot of getting beaten). The fact that Sony would limit the potential player base for its own game, seemingly out of stubbornness, has left many feeling disheartened ahead of Marvel Tōkon’s August 3 release.