Ark: Aquatica Developer Shifts Blame for Disastrous AI Trailer onto Marketing Team
Recently, the trailer for the Ark: Aquatica expansion, developed by Snail Games, caught the attention of the gaming community—not for its impressive visuals, but for the opposite reason. The trailer has been heavily criticized for its excessive use of artificial intelligence in its animation, leaving viewers unimpressed.
One comment on the trailer’s YouTube page reflects the general sentiment: “This is disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
As the trailer struggled to gain approval, amassing over 480,000 views with only 1,700 upvotes on YouTube, questions arose about who was responsible for its creation. Addressing these concerns, lead game designer Matt Kohl clarified the situation. “That trailer was done by our marketing department,” Kohl explained. “They took our assets and then ran them through AI to animate them. That was marketing.”
Kohl emphasized that the development team had no part in creating the trailer, stating that “there has been no AI use in development of Aquatica.” Kohl further expressed his lack of knowledge regarding the marketing team’s decision to utilize AI for the Ark: Aquatica trailer, which debuted at the Game Developers Conference (GDC).
For those looking forward to more revelations, Kohl promised updates closer to the expansion’s launch. He also pointed out a brief gameplay trailer produced by the development team, highlighting genuine content from Ark: Aquatica. Meanwhile, the marketing team has yet to issue a statement regarding last week’s controversial trailer.
Moving beyond the controversy, the broader Ark universe continues to generate anticipation. Ark 2, which was first introduced back in 2020 with an engaging CGI trailer featuring Vin Diesel, has yet to come to fruition. Despite delays, developer Studio Wildcard remains committed to the advancement of both Ark 2 and Ark: Survival Ascended.
In other developments, the Ark franchise also released a trailer for its expansion, Lost Colony, which included a character portrayed by Michelle Yeoh, linking it to the Ark animated series.
