Anthropic added two sentences to the system prompt for Claude Code when paired with Opus 5.5: it can create original games, games of a certain genre, and games using the user's own designs and assets, but it should not recreate a specific existing game, even if renamed or claimed to be original. According to Ars Technica, users first noticed this rule around 10 27, and XDA independently confirmed it in Claude Code 2.1.314 released on 10 30. Anthropic's Addy Osmani responded on X, stating that this was done because using Claude to infringe on intellectual property violates the usage policy, and indicated that adjustments would continue, inviting feedback if one's work was incorrectly rejected.
Confidence: Medium (75) · Event time 2026-10-30
Reasoning
- AI programming tools have drastically reduced the cost of recreating, decompiling, and porting old games; the decompilation community decomp.dev closed last month partly due to this. This is the first time a mainstream coding agent has directly restricted such uses at the product level, primarily to reduce copyright liability.
- Ars Technica believes the effect will be limited: those wanting to recreate games can switch to other frontier or open-source models without this restriction; meanwhile, the rule's boundaries are vague, and it is difficult for the model to distinguish between mashups like "Mario in Elden Ring" and specific recreations versus games of a certain genre. Developers have already reported false positives on Anthropic's GitHub.
Usage
- Developers using Claude Code to create games: Specify in the prompt that the design is original or uses your own assets; if incorrectly rejected, you can provide feedback as suggested in Osmani's post, or report it in a Claude Code GitHub issue.
Risks
- Anthropic has not issued a formal announcement; only an employee confirmed on X that "two sentences were added," without confirming the specific wording circulating online. The editor did not directly open the original X post; quotes are sourced from Ars Technica and The Verge.
- It is unclear whether the rule has also been added to the prompts for other products like the Claude web version; Anthropic has not yet responded to The Verge's inquiry.