Sony's Steam listing for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has opened in several previously restricted countries, but more than 100 markets may still be blocked before launch.
Image: playstation.com
Sony has opened some Steam regions, but the fight is not over
Marvel Tokon PC availability has widened after days of backlash over the Sony-published fighter’s Steam country restrictions, but the change is partial and the numbers are already contested.
Push Square reported on July 10 that Sony removed “around 16 countries” from Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ PC region block, citing SteamDB, and said the number of blocked countries had dropped from 132 to 116. EventHubs also reported that Sony eased Steam purchase restrictions following backlash, while AllKeyShop reported the change as 15 countries removed from the restricted list, leaving 117 still unavailable. That discrepancy matters because the published country list most outlets cite contains 15 named territories, while some reporting and the arithmetic around the remaining blocked total point to 16.
The confirmed shape of the story is clear even if the exact count is not settled in the supplied reporting: Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was listed as unavailable for purchase on Steam in 132 countries, then the Steam listing changed to allow sales in a limited set of previously blocked regions. Sony Interactive Entertainment is the publisher, Arc System Works is the developer, and the game is still scheduled for release on August 6, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and PC according to multiple outlets covering the listing change.
For players, the current takeaway is practical rather than celebratory. If your region was blocked last week, check the Steam listing again before assuming the decision is final. If your region is still blocked, there has been no official statement in the provided sources confirming when, or whether, Sony will remove the remaining restrictions.
The newly opened countries show a targeted change, not a full reversal
EventHubs identified the countries now able to buy Marvel Tokon officially on Steam as Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Egypt, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, the Philippines, Pakistan, Serbia, and Uzbekistan. Push Square highlighted Pakistan and the Philippines as examples of regions that can now officially buy the fighter on Steam.
That list cuts across several regions: South Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Africa, and the Caribbean. It also underlines how broad the original Marvel Tokon countries issue was. EventHubs’ earlier report said purchases had been blocked in 132 countries, and its partial published list included Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cambodia, Cuba, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Ghana, Iraq, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, and others. Level Up reported that the affected territories included several Latin American countries, naming Cuba and Venezuela in its coverage.
The new availability does not erase the remaining gap. EventHubs reported that Morocco remains blocked, and noted the irony that Evo is planning to host a major event there where Marvel Tokon is expected to be a prominent title. That point lands hard in the fighting game community because regional events are not cosmetic. A country that can host competitors, side brackets, and public demos but cannot reliably sell the PC version to local players is starting the launch cycle with a bracket seeding problem before anyone has picked a team.
The PSN link theory is strong, but Sony has not explained this listing change
The leading explanation across the reporting is PlayStation Network availability. Push Square wrote that the restriction is likely tied to PSN region support and said a PlayStation account is required for the Arc System Works fighter. EventHubs similarly reported that the restrictions appear to be in place because of Marvel Tokon’s PlayStation Network account requirements, with those regions blocked from signing up. Level Up described the absence in affected regions as widely attributed to mandatory PSN account linking on Steam.
That is still not the same as a publisher statement. EventHubs reported that there has been no official word on why the changes were made or whether more are coming, and Level Up likewise said neither PlayStation nor Arc System Works had issued an official statement on the matter at the time of its report. Until Sony clarifies the requirement and the country policy, the safest wording is that SteamDB listing changes show restrictions being removed in some regions, while the cause and future plan remain unannounced.
The comparison point is Helldivers 2. EventHubs reported that the same 132 countries had previously been blocked on Steam for Helldivers 2 after a PSN account requirement became an issue, and that Sony ultimately reversed course following backlash. Push Square also pointed to prior Sony PC releases affected by PSN-related region problems, including Stellar Blade, while noting that restrictions have been eased in previous titles. Those precedents make a wider Marvel Tokon change possible, but they do not guarantee it, especially for a game built around online play and cross-platform competition.
For a fighting game, country access affects the meta before release day
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a 4v4 tag fighter from Arc System Works, the studio behind Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear, according to Kotaku. Its structure is unusual even by tag-game standards. Kotaku reported that players begin with access to two characters, then add more team members during a match through stage transitions, corner pressure, or losing a round. Those additions expand assist options, health, and skill gauge access, with assist moves tied to team slots and directional inputs.
That kind of ruleset rewards early lab time. Team order, assist routing, corner carry, defensive layers, and matchup-specific answers tend to form quickly in the first weeks of a tag fighter. If whole countries cannot buy the PC version at launch, their players lose the most valuable phase of discovery: the messy opening window when everyone is testing conversions, finding safe jumps, and learning which assist calls are real pressure and which ones are day-one fraud checks.
Level Up described Marvel Tokon as an online-centric experience with cross-play functionality between PS5 and PC users. If that cross-play pool launches with gaps across regions, the effects are bigger than one storefront purchase button. It can thin out matchmaking, limit local training groups, complicate tournament preparation, and push players toward workarounds that do not help account stability or event standardization.
This is especially relevant for PC. Push Square noted that console players in unsupported PSN regions have historically used accounts from other countries as a workaround, while also saying that approach is technically against terms of service. On Steam, Push Square reported, the game is simply unavailable in unsupported countries, and using a VPN is a quick route to getting an account banned. For competitive players, risking a main Steam account to buy a fighter is a terrible trade.
The platform picture is clear, but the storefront picture still needs answers
The release timing has not changed in the supplied reporting. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is scheduled for August 6, 2026. EventHubs says it is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC, with Sony Interactive Entertainment publishing and Arc System Works developing. AllKeyShop’s report says the PC release is planned for Steam and the Epic Games Store.
The restriction evidence in the provided sources is specifically tied to Steam and SteamDB. Push Square cited SteamDB for the reduced country block, and EventHubs framed the sales lockout around Steam purchase restrictions. We do not have a sourced, country-by-country Epic Games Store restriction list in the assignment materials, so readers should not assume Epic availability automatically solves the issue unless the local store page confirms it.
That distinction matters for players choosing where to buy. If the game requires a PSN account on PC, a different storefront may not help someone in a country where PSN account creation is unsupported. If the issue is a Steam package configuration rather than a hard account policy, another storefront could behave differently. Sony has not publicly clarified that in the supplied sources, so the storefront question remains open.
How players should handle the pre-launch window
If you are in one of the newly opened countries named by EventHubs, the practical move is simple: check the Steam page from your normal region, without a VPN, and confirm whether purchase access is live on your account. Pakistan, the Philippines, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Egypt, Serbia, Kazakhstan, and the other named territories are the places where the reported change should be visible first.
If you are still blocked, waiting is safer than forcing the issue. The listing has already changed once, and both Push Square and EventHubs frame the reduction as a possible step toward broader resolution. At the same time, there is no official PlayStation or Arc System Works statement in the provided reporting promising that all remaining countries will be restored before Marvel Tokon release day.
For tournament organizers and serious players, plan around uncertainty. Do not build a launch-week PC bracket in a restricted region without confirming local purchase access. If your scene is split between PS5 and PC, verify which players can actually buy, link, update, and play the game before setting rules. For a tag fighter with cross-play ambitions, the healthiest launch is one where players are losing to mix-ups, not losing access at the storefront.