Anthropic has added instructions to 'Claude Code' to decline requests asking it to recreate existing games as-is. The restriction applies even if the game's name is changed or described as original. However, users can still build games based on their own designs or within the same genre.
Anthropic technical staff member Addy Osmani confirmed the change on X on October 30 local time. He explained that two sentences were added to the prompt for Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code.
The reason is intellectual property (IP) infringement. Osmani stated that using Claude to infringe IP violates the company's usage policy.
This measure comes amid a growing number of cases where AI is used to clone video games. Earlier, several indie developers canceled public demo releases or turned public playtests private due to concerns over cloning. Meanwhile, Valve acknowledged issues with AI slop and cloning on Steam, though it maintained its stance that it does not wish to act as a gatekeeper deciding which tools developers can use.
Meanwhile, reports have been surfacing across online communities regarding issues logged on Claude Code's GitHub where work was rejected mid-game development. Some users claim that even general reverse engineering is being blocked, though it remains unconfirmed whether this is due to the recent prompt update.
Of course, limitations remain, as Claude has no way of verifying whether a user actually owns a game. Furthermore, other models running locally do not carry the same restrictions. Osmani stated that Anthropic will continue refining its guidelines to strike the right balance, asking developers to reach out if their work was wrongfully declined.
