Snail Games Holds Marketing Team Accountable for Ark: Aquatica AI Trailer

Snail Games, the people behind Ark: Aquatica, recently stirred up quite the buzz over their AI-driven trailer, and they’re pointing fingers at their marketing team for the decision.

In a chat with Aftermath, the lead game designer, Matt Kohl, explained that the trailer’s animation was crafted using artificial intelligence. Surprisingly, Kohl admitted he was in the dark about why the marketing folks opted for this unusual approach.

“The marketing department was responsible for that trailer,” Kohl stated. “They took the assets we created and put them through AI to animate them. It was entirely a marketing decision; our development team had no involvement in that process, nor have we utilized AI in creating Aquatica.”

This AI-enhanced trailer for Ark: Aquatica—a DLC pack for Ark: Survival Evolved—made its debut at GDC. It didn’t take long for reactions to pour in, with one commenter not holding back, stating, “This is disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Meanwhile, Studio Wildcard, the developers behind Ark: Survival Evolved, has made it clear that they’re not part of this project, even tweeting to distance themselves from the whole affair.