Anthropic Updates Claude Code to Block AI Recreation of Existing Video Games
Anthropic added two system-prompt sentences to Claude Code on Opus 5.5, steering it away from recreating games owned by others under its existing IP policy. Original games and projects using users’ own designs and assets remain supported, but Anthropic has disclosed no detection details.
Anthropic has updated Claude Code’s system prompt to prevent the AI tool from being used to recreate existing video games, the company confirmed in November 2026. The change applies to Claude Code running on Opus 5.5 and consists of two added sentences designed to steer the tool away from reproducing games that belong to others.
The update comes as retro gaming has been increasingly affected by AI-made decompilations, recompilations, and ports. Anthropic stated that using Claude to infringe intellectual property is against its usage policy, framing the prompt change as a measure to enforce that existing rule.
According to Anthropic, the restrictions are targeted rather than sweeping. Original games, genre games, and games built from a user’s own designs and assets are intended to continue working as before. The company said it will keep iterating to strike the right balance, and invited users to flag cases where Claude declines something it shouldn’t.
The story was first reported by Tom’s Hardware before being picked up more widely. Anthropic has not announced further technical details about how the updated prompt identifies or handles requests that fall into restricted territory.
The move suggests that AI coding tools are coming under closer scrutiny for their potential role in intellectual property infringement, particularly in the gaming space. By addressing the issue at the system-prompt level rather than through broader platform restrictions, Anthropic is attempting to preserve legitimate use cases while limiting activity that could expose users or the company to IP liability.