Marvel Tokon Runs Rough on PC, Not at All on Linux
Arc System Works shipped a day-one PC patch and players still report stutter. On SteamOS it does not launch at all. What to check before you buy.
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls landed on August 6 on PS5 and PC, developed by Arc System Works and published by PlayStation Publishing, at $59.99 for the standard edition. Arc System Works is not an indie studio and this is not an indie game. We are covering it anyway, because the PC version is currently the clearest example we have seen this year of a launch that treats PC players as an afterthought, and because one of the things it breaks is the machine some of you just bought to play your indie library on the couch.
The short version: if you want this on PC, wait. If you are on SteamOS or any Linux distribution, you cannot play it at all right now.
The day-one patch happened, and it was not enough
Credit where it is owed. The open beta ran badly, Arc System Works said it would fix the PC build by launch, and it actually shipped a substantial patch on day one. The notes are specific rather than vague: the team removed unnecessary character animation updates "resulting in a reduced CPU load," fixed crashes tied to capture and overlay software like OBS Studio and Discord, corrected anti-aliasing plugins (DLSS, FSR, and XeSS) that were being applied unintentionally, added a setting to control how often background characters update, and reduced a delay in sending input data during online matches. PS5 got extra input lag mitigation too.
That is a real engineering effort and a more honest patch note than most. It also did not solve the problem. Players are still reporting micro-stutter and frame drops in matches, and they are reporting it across the hardware range rather than on the low end. One widely shared community post put it bluntly: "You could be running a 5090 with a 9800X3D at the lowest settings and it'll still happen." Others report the game failing to launch outright.
In a fighting game, this matters more than it would almost anywhere else. A hitch of a few frames in a single-player action game is annoying. In a genre where a punish window can be 5 frames and the whole point is that your inputs land when you press them, inconsistent frame pacing is not a polish issue. It is the product.
Steam reviews reflect that. At the time of writing the game sits at Mixed, with roughly 44% of about 1,500 reviews positive, and the negatives are overwhelmingly about the port rather than the game underneath it. By most accounts the fighting itself is good, which is what makes this frustrating rather than simply disappointing.
SteamOS players are locked out, and it is a toggle
The bigger issue for our readers is that Marvel Tokon does not launch on SteamOS, Bazzite, the Steam Deck, or the Steam Machine. Players get an Easy Anti-Cheat error: "No anti-cheat module has been found for this game and platform."
Here is the part worth understanding. Easy Anti-Cheat already supports Proton. It has for years. Enabling it is a configuration step the developer performs, not a port. Marvel Rivals, an online Marvel game with the same anti-cheat concerns, has it enabled. Plenty of much smaller multiplayer studios have it enabled, because for a team without a QA lab it is cheaper to flip the switch than to field the support tickets.
Asked about Linux support in the game's Discord, a community manager reportedly replied that "what you need to understand that this is like requesting it for a different platform like the switch." That is the response that turned a technical gap into a bad week. Nobody is asking for a native Linux build. They are asking for a checkbox that the anti-cheat vendor already ships.
There is a second wrinkle: the PC version requires a PlayStation Account for online lobbies, ranked, casual, room matches, and player profiles, and it runs kernel-level anti-cheat. If either of those is a line you do not cross, that decision is separate from the performance question and it is not going to be patched away.
What we would do
If you have a PS5, buy it there. The console version is not the story here.
If you are on Windows and you want it now, watch a few minutes of unedited PC footage from someone with hardware close to yours before you spend $59.99, and keep Steam's 2-hour refund window in mind. Arc System Works has a track record of supporting its fighters for years, and we would expect this to get better. We would not pay full price today on the assumption that it already has.
If you are on SteamOS, there is no decision to make. Wishlist it, and check back when the anti-cheat toggle flips. We will note it here when it does.