Anthropic is tightening how Claude Code handles requests to recreate existing video games. On October 30, 2026, company technical team member Addy Osmani confirmed that two sentences had been added to the tool’s instructions when it uses the Opus 5.5 model.
The new guidance tells Claude Code to refuse attempts to reproduce a specific game belonging to someone else, even when the project is given a different name or described as original. The measure is presented as a way to protect intellectual property, an area already covered by Anthropic’s usage rules.
Osmani said the assistant should still help users create original games, develop projects within an existing genre or work with resources they own. The instruction does not establish a general ban on mods or browser ports, although users are questioning how the system will distinguish between legitimate inspiration and a close reproduction.
AI coding assistants can help with tasks such as understanding code, adapting it and fixing errors. That has made projects ranging from browser versions of classic games to recreations inside Roblox easier to pursue. The trend has also raised concerns among studios and developers.
According to Risky Business, some small developers have received messages demanding payment under threat of having their demos copied with AI and released as competing games. The report does not establish whether those making the threats could actually carry them out.
Some users have also reported refusals involving projects they consider legitimate, although not every case appears connected to the new game-related instruction. One GitHub user said Claude blocked a request to build an anticheat system, apparently treating it as a cybersecurity task. The report was made on October 26, before the game restriction was thought to have been introduced, and did not include the full conversation.
A separate complaint came from the head of Conflict Simulations, who said Claude refused to continue digital adaptations of board games commissioned by clients. He said the code was original and based on materials supplied by people who owned the games for personal use, but later clarified that the adaptations were not licensed by the publishers.
The debate also concerns what qualifies as copying. Replicating a game’s mechanics does not necessarily mean reproducing its protected expression. The U.S. Copyright Office states that a game’s idea and the methods used to play it are not protected by copyright, while code, graphics and text may be protected. In practice, creating another battle royale can be different from copying protected elements from a particular title.
Anthropic explicitly allows games belonging to the same genre, but it remains unclear how Claude will handle projects that use similar mechanics while relying on their own code and artwork. Osmani said the company would continue adjusting the restriction and invited users whose original creations are blocked to share their cases.
Sources: Numerama.