Even before its release in 2025, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has faced controversy. The revival of the long-dormant Fatal Fury series came after publisher SNK was purchased by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, and it’s suffered from accusations of sportswashing ever since. Now, SNK and CotW are getting called out for releasing a trailer full of alleged AI slop.
On Thursday, SNK released a trailer for Fatal Fury: CotW’s upcoming second season, which launches on January 22. The trailer promises a pretty robust release schedule for the game’s anniversary with monthly character drops over a six-month period. Returning characters Kim Jae Hoon, Nightmare Geese, Blue Mary, and Wolfgang Krauser are slated to join the game’s roster, too. However, the excitement of fan-favorites returning has been almost entirely overshadowed by the game’s latest trailer incorporating apparent AI-generated clips.
“I’m stepping down after this trailer, I’m thankful for what you guys did for us and all but this is too much for me to deal with, this is against what I stand for,” a moderator wrote in their parting message to the official Discord server.
It’s easy to see why. The AI stuff is just really, really ugly. The shots of cities feature skyscrapers with the most inconsistent windows I’ve ever seen, and something about the character introduction clips just looks…very off. (It’s almost like SNK knew the clips looked bad because half of them are overlaid with big walls of text and graffiti-like flourishes.)
It also just seems wildly inconsistent with the game itself. CotW has a pretty vibrant cel-shaded art style, and the trailer’s AI shots ignore that entirely for a false sense of edginess that looks pretty corny when juxtaposed with clips of colorful, cartoonish gameplay. The studio didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
SNK was purchased by the Saudi Public Investment Fund in 2022. Despite promises that the ownership change would have no impact, CotW doesn’t seem to have been exempt from the effects of this. The country’s sovereign wealth fund also owns Al-Nassr FC, and its soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was later added to CotW as a playable character. It’s a shame because the game itself is decent. It even took home the Best Fighting Game award at this year’s Game Awards.
SNK’s problematic ties to Saudi Arabia aren’t going anywhere in the future, but it could avoid making things worse by not piling gen AI junk on top of them. This also doesn’t bode well for Saudi Arabia’s other massive game purchase. It’s currently on track to own Electronic Arts by the end of the summer.
