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With Marvel Tokon, Wolverine, and 1943: Rise of Hydra, 2026 will either be the best year for Marvel Games, or the most disappointing [Gamify My Life]

I've got faith we'll see Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls this year, but what about Wolverine and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra? I'm less certain about them.

Gamify My Life Wolverine Trailer Screenshot Header — Image credit: Insomniac Games / Popverse

Features by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Mon Jan 26 2026

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Marvel fans have a lot to look forward to in 2026. We’ve got a new Spider-Man movie coming this summer and Avengers: Doomsday ready to set the MCU up for a little multiversal chaos, plus the ongoing success of Marvel Rivals and its new seasons and characters. But 2026 also has Marvel potentially releasing multiple highly anticipated AAA games, which could make it the best year for Marvel games as well – if the games actually come out when they’re meant to.

There is a trio of Marvel video games that I’m particularly excited about with release dates in 2026, which should be cause for excitement. However, I’m having serious doubts about at least two of those games. As much as I want to have faith that the studios will pull off a gangbuster year for Marvel games, there are some cracks showing in this release schedule.

Marvel Token Fighting Souls Iron Man — Image credit: Arc System Works

Let’s start with the game I’m most confident we’ll get to see this year. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls feels like the modern answer to the lack of new Marvel vs Capcom games in recent years. Arc System Works is the developer behind it, and they’ve done enough solid work on the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series over the years – not to mention the stellar Dragon Ball FighterZ – that I am sure they’ll deliver something spectacular. They know their craft and if they say Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is coming out in 2026, I believe them. I just can’t wait to show off my abysmal fighting game skills when it does come out.

Aside from the ongoing success of Marvel Rivals, which continues to put out great new content regularly, that is where my hope for Marvel games in 2026 ends. Because the other two titles seem far less likely to actually come out when they’ve been promised.

Wolverine Fighting Screenshot — Image credit: Insomniac Games

Marvel’s Wolverine, from the makers of the exceptional Spider-Man games for the PlayStation, is due out in late 2026, which should give the developers plenty of time to polish it and get it out before the holiday season. However, there are two things that keep me from trusting this will happen. The first is the fact that we haven’t seen anything other than a teaser trailer for the game up to now. For a game that has been in development for more than four years and is due out in the next 12 months, it feels like we should have a little more to show for the wait.

The other issue for me is outside Insomniac Games’ control. GTA 6 is due out in November 2026, which will make it the go-to game of the holiday season. The entire video game industry is watching the Grand Theft Auto VI release date and wondering how it will impact their promotion and sales. Will Insomniac risk going head-to-head with Rockstar’s latest outing, knowing it will eat up all the oxygen in the industry like nothing else has? I wouldn’t be surprised if they did blink and push the Wolverine release date back a few months to get clear of the fallout.

Marvel Rise Of Hydra 1943 Screenshot — Image credit: Skydance New Media

I can see a path to Marvel’s Wolverine coming out in 2026, but Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is another story. It has already been delayed and delayed… and delayed again. The most recent delay seemed to be to allow the team at Skydance Games to “fully realize” their vision. Now, we’re excited to see Captain America and Black Panther punching Nazis repeatedly, but considering we don’t have a release window for Rise of Hydra anymore, it feels unlikely it will come out in 2026 at all. All we know is that Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra will come out “beyond early 2026,” so I’m not hopeful at this point.

I’d love to be wrong about this, of course. I’d love to live in a world where we get three great Marvel games in 2026 along with the films and TV shows that are coming from Marvel Studios. I’m a big Marvel fan, so that would be amazing, but I’m also a realist and I can tell when things aren’t coming together. Between Marvel’s Wolverine, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Soul, and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, at least one (and probably two) of them will be pushed into 2027. We just need to wait and be thankful for whichever games we do get to play this year.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer: