Marvel’s Tōkon Faces High Stakes After 2026’s Disappointing 2D Fighting Game Lineup
Yesterday, Riot announced it was halting active development on 2XKO, its League of Legends fighting game, just a year after its launch. While the game faced its share of challenges, it had a solid foundation that Riot seemed reluctant to build upon, especially after laying off staff less than a month post-console release. Given the circumstances, Riot’s decision to pull the plug wasn’t entirely unexpected. However, if you had told fighting game enthusiasts a year ago that the 2026 lineup would struggle as much as it has, it would have raised some eyebrows.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is fundamentally a great game, but its rocky PC port caused it to stumble right from the start. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game also has potential but has been weighed down by controversies and criticism for feeling incomplete. Invisible VS is the epitome of a game that quickly faded from memory, with most of the team at developer Quarter Up reportedly laid off after the fighter failed to attract a larger audience.
The current state of fighting games in 2026 is concerning, with a game shut down in under a year, another that was quickly forgotten, a solid title rushed with missing features, and a game suffering from a flawed PC port and matchmaking issues.
Fans are worried not just about the future of fighting games, but about how many new studios and projects will invest in the genre, or if established titles like Street Fighter will continue to dominate. One Reddit user expressed, “This is all to say that fighting games may be absolutely cooked both in indie and in AAA/AA. I’m not saying we’re doomed, but we’re basically stuck with what we have for a while. Major failures like 2XKO and Fatal Fury will likely deter new investment for AAA titles. The lackluster performance of Avatar Legends and Invisible VS suggests the indie/AA market is also struggling.”
Among these titles, Marvel Tōkon seems to have the best chance of sustaining interest, thanks to support from both Sony and Marvel. The game has a planned lineup of new fighters for its first year, although Sony has canceled projects in the past. My instinct tells me Tōkon will have better longevity based on its character strength alone. Early Steam numbers haven’t been promising, with daily players dropping to four figures just weeks after launch, but it appears the game has sold significantly better on PS5, likely due to the negative buzz surrounding the Steam version.
Overall, the fighting game community is facing a tough time. The biggest tournament has been acquired by outside investors, new games are struggling to gain traction, and classic titles are fluctuating in popularity. It’s disheartening to see so many promising games not achieve the success they seemed capable of. The genre deserves more than just Street Fighter thriving, and I genuinely hope that Arc System Works can help Tōkon find its footing and flourish.
