We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

The ARK Aquatica AI trailer doesn’t reflect the game, devs say

We’ve all seen the ARK Aquatica trailer by now, so we asked Snail Colorado for their input while at GDC. Here’s what it had to say.

A screenshot from the Ark AI trailer for Aquatica
Holly Alice's Avatar

Published:

Ark: Ultimate Mobile Edition 

It’s been a bit of a turbulent week for ARK fans, but to help calm some fears, we used our chance to talk to Matt Kohl, Lead Developer of Snail Colorado, about all things ARK – including that trailer for the Aquatica expansion.

The trailer for this new expansion to one of the best survival games debuted on Snail Games USA’s YouTube channel a few days ago and had a mixed reception, to say the least. You can watch the trailer below and make up your own mind, but one thing is clear – there was a heavy use of AI to create it.

Fans of the game have had some words to say about this. A quick search of the DLC’s name brings up plenty of news articles about the backlash and the r/ARK Reddit is full of posts like this one, making memes of the AI trailer.

So, while speaking to the ARK team at GDC, we asked Matt Kohl to comment on the controversial trailer. The quote we got is as follows: “The marketing department used still images of some of our assets to create an AI-animated trailer. That was not part of the development team; we did not know that they were doing it.”

We also asked if the trailer reflects the actual gameplay and whether the developer employed AI tools to create Aquatica. Snail is eager to point out that it has not used any AI development tools when making the expansion and that the trailer does not reflect the finished product.

YouTube Thumbnail

This does bring into question the communication between different parts of the Snail team and how this trailer got the go-ahead. Also, we hope the aforementioned still images surface, as the ones on the game’s Steam page don’t seem to match the vibe of the trailer.

We’re glad to hear the actual expansion isn’t using AI and can’t wait to learn more about the underwater-themed expansion coming to Survival Evolved. We’re also interested to see whether Snail puts out an official statement, but either way, you have our investigation to help you decide if you want to dive in.

While waiting to see how the DLC turns out, you can try these free mobile games and upcoming Switch games for some other entertainment.

Usually found roaming through Teyvat or throwing Pokéballs around, Holly is a lover of Hoyoverse, Nintendo, and indie games. Animal Crossing is her ride-or-die. She also plays too many mobile games, including Monopoly Go. She got started doing freelance lists for GameRant and Roblox pages for VG247, and producing Genshin builds for Gfinity. Her biggest achievement to date is getting her Pikmin 4 score on adverts across the UK. She can, and will, lay some hot takes out if you let her but sticks to correct opinions like arguing what the best wireless chargers and stylus phones are, and which farming game is the best (it’s Stardew). Also owns a really cute lizard.