Anthropic Updates Claude Code Prompt to Block AI Video Game Clones
Anthropic has updated the system prompt for Claude Code on Opus 5.5 to prevent users from replicating existing video games and infringing on intellectual property.
Anthropic is restricting its AI coding tools from direct video game duplication. Following reports of AI-generated game decompilations and ports overrunning retro gaming spaces, the company has updated the system prompt for Claude Code to steer the model away from creating clones of specific existing titles.
The move comes after Tom’s Hardware reported on a screenshot posted to X showing new rules injected into Claude Code's prompt: "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 named or called original."
Clamping Down on IP Infringement
In response to the community finding, Anthropic’s Addy Osmani acknowledged the update on Opus 5.5, noting that using Claude to violate intellectual property violates the platform's usage policy.
"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," Osmani stated.
However, Anthropic emphasized that legitimate game creation workflows remain untouched. Developers can still use Claude Code to build original titles, experiment within specific genres, or craft projects relying on their own custom assets and designs.
Balancing Enforcement and Creativity
As AI models become increasingly capable of generating functional software and reverse-engineering retro code, developers and AI providers are grappling with legal boundaries surrounding copyright enforcement.
Osmani noted that Anthropic will continue refining its guardrails to ensure legitimate projects are not inadvertently blocked, inviting users to reach out directly if the system mistakenly rejects original work.
