Arc System Works and Sony's big Marvel crossover fighter hit PC in rough shape yesterday, landing at a dismal 44% positive rating on Steam with 1,565 reviews logged so far. Performance complaints from the open beta—stuttering, high CPU usage, crashes, and shader compilation woes—carried straight into launch despite day-one patches that included reduced CPU load and improved stability. Console players on PS5 report a much smoother experience, with the store sitting at a solid 4.49 rating from thousands of verified purchases.

The issues hit Linux and Steam Deck users hardest, with many reporting the game simply won't launch or runs unplayably. Kotaku's testing confirmed the port is demanding on its own, with multiple PlayStation PC SDK processes firing up and hogging resources. Arc System Works acknowledged the problems in a launch-day statement, promising they're "actively investigating" while thanking players for feedback. Peak Steam concurrent players sat at just 24,498 on day one, well below Dragon Ball FighterZ's 2018 launch numbers.

This isn't the first time a high-profile ArcSys title stumbled on PC, and the pattern of beta warnings ignored until after launch is starting to look like a habit. Player reviews are blunt: one calls it "horribly optimized" and advises waiting for fixes, while others note it runs fine on some high-end rigs but tanks on others. The fighting game community wants the game to succeed, but the PC version is making that harder than it needs to be.