Claude users seeking to recreate well-known video games with the AI assistant are now more likely to receive a refusal. Newly discovered instructions in Claude Code tell the models not to “build a recreation of a specific existing game,” even when a user gives it a different name or describes it as an original project.
The updated system prompt was first highlighted by a user on X and later confirmed by a member of the Claude Code development team. It distinguishes between recreating a specific game and developing original work: Claude is instructed to build original games, games within a genre, and projects based on a user’s own designs and assets.
Addy Osmani, a former Google Chrome engineer who now works at Anthropic, said the change is intended to prevent Claude from helping users infringe intellectual property. He added that original games and projects based on users’ own material should continue to work, and asked users to report cases in which Claude rejects something they own.
The change follows a recent surge in projects and demonstrations showing how AI models can recreate existing games, gadgets and other products. Several GitHub projects have offered instructions and tools for using Claude, ChatGPT and other models to reproduce video games, while online galleries have showcased recreated versions of titles including Diablo II, Grand Theft Auto 2, The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past and Harvest Moon.
These projects commonly use AI to decompile the ROM or binary used by a PC or console, working backward toward human-readable source code. Although decompiling older games is not new, AI has made the process faster and more accessible.
The practice can also create legal risks when copyrighted games are involved. In 2021, Grand Theft Auto developer Take-Two sued the creators of decompiled mods for Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The case was later settled after the mods were removed from release.
Sources: PCWorld.