Anthropic adds a rule telling Claude Code not to recreate existing games

Anthropic has updated Claude Code so it stops building recreations of existing video games. The change is a new rule in the AI coding tool's prompt, and users can't switch it off.

The rule was first spotted by a user going by chasm on X. It reads: "Do build original games, games in a genre, and games from the user's own designs and assets. Don't build a recreation of a specific existing game, even if it is renamed or called original."

Anthropic member of technical staff Addy Osmani confirmed the change. "We added two sentences to Claude Code's prompt on Opus 5.5 to steer it away from recreating someone else's specific game because using Claude to infringe IP is against our usage policy," he said.

He added that "Original games, genre games, and games built from your own designs and assets are meant to keep working." If Claude refuses a project that's actually yours, Osmani's advice is simple: "if Claude turns down something that's yours, send it my way."

According to chasm, the rule showed up on or around October 27. XDA independently verified it appears in version 2.1.314 of the Claude Code binary, released on October 30, listed under the name "tengu_heron_brook." XDA also reported that Claude Opus 5.5 seems to carry its own separate instructions restricting game recreations.

The timing lines up with a rough stretch for AI clones. AI-made decompilations, recompilations and ports have been piling up, and GameSpot points to last month's Steam Next Fest, where the showcase was flooded with low-effort games, leading some developers to cancel demos outright.

Not everyone thinks a prompt tweak will change much. Ars Technica-style skepticism came from the Steam News relay of XDA-linked reporting, which argued the rule could help shield Anthropic from some liability but is unlikely to slow the broader wave of AI-assisted porting and copying.

Osmani said Anthropic will "continue to iterate to ensure we're striking the right balance."