Anthropic Tells Claude Code to Stop Cloning Existing Video Games, but Original Games Are Still Fine

If you have been watching the wave of AI-assisted ports and remakes of classic games, here is a quiet but meaningful change. Anthropic has added new guidance to Claude Code that steers it away from recreating a specific existing game, as reported by The Verge.

What changed

Last week a user on X shared what looked like two new lines in Claude Code's system prompt, telling it to build original games, genre games and games from the user's own designs and assets, but not a recreation of a particular existing title, even when the request claims it is "original". Anthropic's Addy Osmani replied that the company had indeed added two sentences to the prompt for Claude Code on Opus 5.5, saying that using Claude to infringe IP breaks its usage policy. He did not confirm that exact wording, added that original and genre projects should keep working, and invited people to flag cases where Claude refuses something that really is theirs.

Why game fans should care

Retro gaming has been flooded lately with AI-made decompilations, recompilations and ports. Some are passion projects, others are thinly disguised copies of games that are still sold. A tool-level nudge like this will not stop everything, but it shows the big AI companies are starting to treat game IP the way they already treat music and film.

The tricky part is the gray zone. A "Metroidvania", a "soulslike" or a cozy farming sim is a genre, not a clone, and indie developers lean on those templates all the time. If the filter is too eager, legitimate projects get caught. Anthropic says it will keep adjusting, and The Verge has asked whether other Claude prompts will get the same treatment.

I am curious whether other coding assistants follow. Either way, if you were hoping to rebuild your favorite childhood platformer with a single prompt, expect more pushback from now on.

Source: The Verge