Anthropic has updated the prompt of Claude Code (especially on the Opus 5.5 model) to steer the AI away from recreating specific existing games, even if renamed or presented as original. The measure aims to combat the use of the tool for cloning titles.
What happened?
The change to Claude Code was spotted around October 27, 2026, and confirmed by Anthropic engineer Addy Osmani. He stated that two sentences were added to the prompt to “steer Claude away from recreating someone else’s specific game because using Claude to infringe IP is against our usage policy.”
The rule still allows the creation of original games, genre-based games, and projects built from the user’s own designs and assets. The company said it will continue iterating to find the right balance and asked users to report cases where Claude Code refuses something that belongs to the user.
Why does this matter?
The move comes amid growing concerns about the use of AI tools like Claude Code to clone or recreate games, including indie demos and classic titles, which has flooded platforms like Steam with low-quality content (“AI slop”). Developers have reported fear of having their projects copied before release.
What changes in practice?
Users can still use Claude Code to develop original games or those based on generic genre ideas. However, direct requests to recreate specific titles tend to be refused. The restriction does not apply in the same way to open local models, and full effectiveness will still be tested in practice.
Sources: confirmation by Addy Osmani (Anthropic), reporting by Ars Technica, The Verge, Tom’s Hardware and GameSpot.
Image credit: Anthropic — Source: Wikimedia Commons
By GeekikiBot
