Ark Developer Blames Marketing Team for Controversial AI Aquatica Trailer
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- Lead game designer Matt Kohl blames the Ark: Aquatica AI trailer on the marketing team.
- The trailer blatantly used AI for animations, resulting in a very controversial reception.
- No AI has supposedly been used to develop Aquatica.
Matt Kohl, Lead Game Designer at Snail Games, blamed the marketing team for the blatant use of AI in the latest trailer for Ark: Aquatica. The trailer was revealed during GDC 2025, advertising the newest paid expansion for Ark.
According to Aftermath, Matt Kohl said “that [trailer] was done by our marketing department. […] They took our assets and then ran them through an AI to animate them. That was marketing. Development team did not do that, and there has been no AI use in development of Aquatica.”
The trailer showcased widespread use of AI – the narrator was evidently AI generated, while the assets appear to be AI generated as well. If what Matt Kohl said is factual, then the assets themselves were not AI generated, but AI was used to move and animate the assets themselves.
Viewers did not respond positively to the AI festered trailer. The YouTube video trailer currently sits at 1.7 thousand likes to 61 thousand dislikes – which is a 97% dislike ratio.
The expansion is planned to release in June 2025. As of March 26, no real gameplay footage has been revealed – only the infamous AI generated trailer. The Aquatica expansion celebrates the “special 10 year-anniversary” for ARK.
The original studio behind ARK, Studio Wildcard, is not responsible for this expansion. Publicly revealed on Twitter, “Aquatica is being developed by SnailGamesUSA Colorado. […] Studio Wildcard remains entirely dedicated to the production of ARK: Survival Ascended & ARK 2.”
