that caught everyone off guard.

Yes, Arc System Works is developing Marvel Tokon, but importantly, this is a PlayStation Studios title that is a big console exclusive for the company.

And it sounds like Sony were the ones pushing the idea from the very beginning.

In the behind the scenes video, ArcSys states they were approached by PlayStation about the possibility of working on a Marvel game, and Marvel pretty much said the same thing.

"So PlayStation approached us with this vision to bring Marvel back to the forefront of the tag fighting genre, and that got us really excited because we had worked with them before on successful stuff like the Marvel's Spider-Man franchise with Insomniac," said Marvel Games' Michael Francisco.

Considering the previously strong relationship between Capcom and PlayStation, you'd think Sony would approach them about Marvel vs. Capcom, but it seems like they'd rather keep that pie for themselves.

We obviously don't know if there were discussions for Marvel vs. Capcom 4 taking place, but nothing will likely be happening on that front for a long time now.

Just last year, Street Fighter's developers discussed their interest in working with Marvel more in the future though it's unclear when they would have learned about the existence of Marvel Tokon.

It feels like Sony saw the demand for MvC and decided to snatch up Capcom's dessert for themselves before they could get to it.

They aren't just making a Marvel fighter but a tag fighter very clearly inspired by Marvel vs. Capcom in terms of mechanics and design though ArcSys is bringing some new twists to the formula like the 4v4 setup and stage transitions.

As to when the Marvel Tokon discussions began, we may never truly know, but the game has likely been in the works for at least a few years now.

So perhaps this came about during a time when Capcom and Marvel were still mending their relationship.

We're having a hard time thinking of other times a major publisher like this saw a gap in the market and decide to step in and do it themselves.

There was of course PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale trying to encroach on Super Smash Bros., which didn't work out so well, but that doesn't feel like the same thing that's going on here.

During the PlayStation 4 era, there were a ton of fighting games like Street Fighter 5 pretty much exclusive to Sony, but that's not really the case anymore.

So perhaps they felt it was time to nab a big exclusive to themselves.

Marvel Tokon also feels like the culmination of Sony's years-long push into taking a firm hold on the fighting game space.

This essentially started when Sony became part owners of the Evolution Championship Series, and their influence has only grown from there.

Sony is now one of the biggest fighting game event sponsors and hardware providers since we see PlayStation 5s and Sony monitors pretty much everywhere you turn your head now.

There's also the built-in PlayStation Tournaments on console that have become a big part of the ecosystem as well.

And now Sony is looking to add even more hardware to the mix with the reveal of their own PlayStation arcade stick.

The company has positioned itself as one of the biggest supporters of fighting games, and that's probably not going to change anytime soon with Marvel Tokon on the horizon.

Sony saw a huge opportunity for themselves and took it, so we'll have to see what that means for Marvel and the fighting game space in general moving forward.