Anthropic Adds Game Restrictions to Claude Code

Anthropic has updated its Claude Code AI coding assistant to include new restrictions aimed at preventing the recreation of existing video games. The change was first reported by Game Developer and identified by X user Chasm.

The new instruction explicitly prohibits Claude Code from recreating specific existing games, even if they are renamed or referred to as original. However, Anthropic clarified that the update does not ban all AI-assisted game development.

Addy Osmani, an Anthropic representative, confirmed the change, stating that two sentences were added to the Claude Code prompt for Opus 5.5 to discourage intellectual property infringement. Osmani also noted that the company is refining the restrictions and encourages developers to report issues if their projects are incorrectly blocked.

A developer from Conflict Simulations LLC reported that Claude Code began refusing to work on personalized digital board-wargame modules for paying customers. The projects use original code and customer-supplied materials, and are intended for customers who own the corresponding physical games.

The developer stated that the refusals began after asking Claude to evaluate whether the new restrictions applied to the existing project. Meanwhile, Tom's Hardware reports additional complaints involving reverse-engineering workflows, though a direct link to the game-specific instruction remains unclear.

These developments are significant for the PC modding community, where AI tools are used for reverse engineering, optimization, and game preservation. For example, an Oblivion Remastered performance mod was recently developed with Claude AI, improving frame rates by over 40%.