Aquatica's trailer is a new low for AI in video games

Generative AI would always come for video games. It was only a few short years ago that we made fun that it did not portray human anatomy or make extended scenes without breaking up in a difficult mess. However, as many properly predicted at that time, it has improved and reached a point where both developers and publishers use it in commercial products.

But it is still seen as a sham point, to use this technology to create assets will inevitably remove jobs from human artists in need of work, not to mention the environmental impact of using it or how it normalizes its role in an industry that is already struggling to remain sustainable and give a value of its workers. In addition, despite improvements, it still looks quite obvious and a step below human creation. Call of Duty, one of the biggest games in the world, recently admitted to using it, so what will prevent anyone else from following in their footsteps?

Ark: Aquatica Trailer is a bang in the face for players

Ark: Survival Evolution is a big deal, after being launched in 2015 for PC before continuing to sell over 20 million units on all platforms. The game makes you gather resources and chasing dinosaurs to invest in your claim in a massive open world and gather huge speech to a huge community of players. It has since been built on with various enlargements and DLC, but has not been without its controversy.

As early as 2023, it announced an Unreal Engine 5 update to Ark: Survival Evolution, but instead of offering it as a free note for existing players, Studio Wildcard decided to charge you $ 50 for it, or alternatively you could buy it in a bundle that came with buying the rejected sheet 2. Buying it still to be released sheet 2. It was gross, and which is foreseen, which was foreseen, fans, was fans who came back to buy it still to released sheet 2. It was gross, and as predicted, which was predicted, as fans who were recalled. But when you love a game so much, you will stick to it through thick and thin even when problems like this arise.

Ark 2 was first revealed in 2020, and at the time of writing there is still no confirmed release date and is not expected this year. Keep your fingers crossed it arrives before the end of the decade.

Players can't believe Ark: Aquatica Trailer is real

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GDC 2025 saw a new trailer released for Ark: Aquatica, an upcoming expansion for survival developed that seems to take inspiration from games like Subnautica. In theory, it will make it possible to dare deep underwater to meet new creatures, gather new materials and explore a new part of the sheet -ecosystem that has not gone up before. But it is difficult to believe this concept when the entire revealing trailer was created by Generative AI.

Snail Games USA uploaded the trailer to its Youtube channel earlier this week, but it has now been noted – probably due to significant fan recurrence. I'm not sure what it expected, as it is obviously constructed by AI in view of the robot story that drowns over a bunch of invisible generic images like cheek Looks like they belong in the Ark universe.

What annoys me most is how the trailer starts with actual feature films, shows the player who scratches his arm when standing on a sandy beach, but then switches to someone swimming underwater, mining crystals and riding giant dinosaurs through coral reefs.

It is so ripe with the properties of generative AI where clips hardly last more than two seconds because the other they do, the illusion begins to vacate. There is no consistency of aesthetics here because it is obvious that sheets just did not care. If it did, it would not have left all the creative work to a machine.

It takes a little nerve to show this on GDC

The video game industry is in a strange place right now. Studio closures and redundancies are common, while the triple-A development becomes all unsustainable and the indie scene is more difficult to break in than ever. If you want to make money creating games, you have lots of work ahead of you. As expected, people want security, peace of mind or a promise that the ground below them will not give place at any time. But like so many other areas, generative AI makes it impossible to feel safe.

Ark: Survival Evolution is a big game with a significant team that works with it, and each of these people wants to use their creative skills so it can be a success. But there are people above those who probably think they know better and believe that the best way to market a new expansion is not through feature films or a practical showcase, but a generic trailer that is so bad that it could only have been done by AI.

This is not a whole new game that is trying to fool us into thinking that it is legit, it is a trait that has been around for almost a decade with millions of players, but it still thinks it's okay to pull this trick is okay? It is a sharp reminder of where this medium is right now, and how with the power to influence its future they do not care about the people who make games or those who play them. As long as they make money, that's all that matters. Ark: Aquatica is a new low.