Claude rejects requests for AI video game clones — here’s what that means for your gaming prompts
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For the past few weeks, there have been so many instances of AI being used to tinker around with popular video games.
That practice has led to the trend of video game decompilations, which is the process of a developer working backward from a compiled, machine-code game to reconstruct readable, human-understandable source code. Reverse engineering games has also popped up as of late, which is all about a developer analyzing compiled machine code or raw binary files to understand their internal logic, rebuild that source code or port games to new platforms.
Because of those AI uses in connection with video games, Halo: Combat Evolved has been made completely playable within a web browser, Super Mario 64 has been decompiled to also work as a playable title on PC and even game mashups have popped up in the form of Minecraft becoming playable in Elden Ring.
But when it comes to using AI tools to completely recreate those popular types of games, Anthropic is making sure that practice won’t be doable with its Claude Code and Opus 5.5 AI models . Here’s how the AI company is blocking any future attempts at prompting the recreation, reverse-engineering and cloning of identifiable video games.
News of Anthropic’s Claude update blocking the cloning of recognizable video games surfaced after a user on X named @chasmmmmmmmmmmm noticed a new rule added to Claude Code that’s meant to block prompts that request the recreation of existing titles. That rule, which is entitled “tengu_heron_brook,” puts forth the following edict:
“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 renamed or called original.”
In response to that X user’s Tweet, Addy Osmani, an engineering leader at Anthropic, gave this statement on the matter:
“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. Original games, genre games, and games built from your own designs and assets are meant to keep working. We'll continue to iterate to ensure we're striking the right balance. In the meantime, if Claude turns down something that's yours, send it my way.”
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. Original games, genre games, and games built from your own designs and assets are meant to keep working. We'll continue to iterate to ensure we're striking the right balance. In the meantime, if Claude turns down something that's yours, send it my way. October 30, 2026
It’s interesting to see Anthropic fight back against people using its AI tools to alter certain video game titles in a major way or remake them altogether.
Looking at the list of games that have had Claude involved in their reverse engineering practices points to just how many retro classics have been altered in a surprising way. Witnessing Skate 3 skateboarding physics crossing over with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer maps and seeing Escape from Tarkov's gunplay, loot systems and extraction mechanics make their way into the fantasy realm of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has come courtesy of AI coding assistants like Claude Opus 5.5.
It’s been interesting to see the flood of reverse engineering video game projects that have begun popping up all over the net. There’s even a GitHub project page dedicated to games that have already been reverse-engineered, decompiled and rebuilt thanks to the implementation of numerous AI models and agentic tools.
The manner in which AI tools have been used to tinker with popular video games has been crazy to see. I never imagined that I’d get to see Marvel’s Spider-Man from the PlayStation series of games be able to swing around Batman’s rain-soaked Gotham City from Arkham Knight. But that has become possible due to the use of AI tools.
Claude’s new AI model update is blocking attempts to completely copy someone else’s video game IP, which also falls in line with Anthropic making sure Claude isn’t used to reverse-engineer smart TVs as well. It seems like Anthropic is moving against any more attempts to have its AI models be used to get caught up in the copyright infringement of existing video game titles.