Fans are upset over the Ark: Aquatica DLC trailer, believing that it uses AI-generated footage. Snail Games is receiving backlash for the trailer.

Concerns are growing over the direction of the Ark franchise and Snail Games’ silence on the recent trailer controversy.

Fans believe the trailer for the upcoming Ark: Survival Evolved DLC, Aquatica, is AI-generated, leading to a wave of backlash. Snail Games has unlisted and deleted some of its posts regarding the new Ark: Survival Evolved DLC and seemingly attempted to move on. However, fans have even begun to comment about their frustrations on new posts for Snail Games’ unrelated projects, like Bellwright, to ensure that their voices are heard.

On March 18, the Ark social media account announced that Ark: Survival Evolved’s Aquatica DLC would be fully developed by Snail Games. This news struck fans as a peculiar change since Studio Wildcard typically handles most of the mainline Ark games. Although this news was disappointing to many fans, it teased the introduction of Ark: Lost Colony along with assurances that Ark: Survival Ascended will be handled by Wildcard along with Ark 2. Following these updates, the Ark: Aquatica DLC trailer dropped, and gamers were not happy with what they saw.

The trailer describes an entirely new world awaiting players after 10 years of journeying in the world of Ark. Fans are upset about this trailer for numerous reasons, particularly because they believe Snail Games used high-fidelity Generative AI visuals to market this DLC instead of incorporating meaningful gameplay footage. Commenters have pointed out that the ratio of these visuals compared to actual in-game footage is overwhelming. Others stated that the video is tone-deaf and out of touch since so many gamers have begun to argue against AI, and some fans are urging Snail Games to pass ownership of the Ark franchise to other developers. Since this backlash has emerged, Snail Games has unlisted the video, but their lack of commentary on the matter has left fans concerned.