Anthropic Updates Claude to Block Recreations of Existing Games

Anthropic has updated Claude so that it will no longer help users recreate specific existing video games. The change surfaced after an X user spotted new lines in Claude's instructions: "Do build original games, games in a genre, and games from the user's own designs and assets. Do not build a recreation of a specific existing game, even if it is renamed or called original."

Addy Osmani, a member of Anthropic's technical staff, confirmed the update on X. He said the company wants to steer Claude away from recreating someone else's specific game, because using Claude to infringe intellectual property is against its usage policy. Osmani added that original games, genre games and projects built from a user's own designs and assets should not be affected, and that Anthropic will "continue to iterate to ensure we're striking the right balance."

A surge of AI-assisted game clones

The timing is notable. AAA titles have increasingly been decompiled with the help of AI and made playable in web browsers. Recent examples include Halo: Combat Evolved, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and even Grand Theft Auto V, all circulating as vibe-coded fan projects.

The rule explicitly covers renamed copies, so simply changing a title or calling a clone "original" should not get around it.

A history of IP disputes

Anthropic has dealt with intellectual property problems before. Last year it agreed to a record-breaking $1.5 billion settlement in a class action brought by 500,000 authors, who accused the company of using copyrighted material to train its AI models. More recently, the estate of Elvis Presley filed a suit against Anthropic over similar concerns.

For developers and hobbyists, the practical takeaway is that Claude remains a tool for making games in a familiar style or from their own assets, but not for reproducing a particular commercial title. How strictly the rule is applied will likely evolve, given Anthropic's stated intention to keep adjusting the balance.