It seems that Anthropic may be (quietly) taking steps to stem the onslaught of AI-powered game remakes that have hit the video game industry in recent months, in which users have created their own versions of classic and upcoming games, sometimes for fun, sometimes for financial gain. Earlier today, X (formerly Twitter) user Chasm said they spotted an update to Claude Code’s “rules” that was pushed sometime on October 27th. The rule is listed below “tengu_heron_brook” and says: “Create original games, games from a genre, and games from the user’s own designs and assets. Do not create a recreation of a specific existing game, even if it is renamed or called original.” Chasm reports that there is no way to disable the rule. An Anthropic spokesperson referred us to a statement from Anthropic technical staff member Addy Osmani, who also posted on “Original games, genre games, and games created from your own designs and assets are meant to continue to work. We will continue to iterate to ensure we strike the right balance.” weeks. Digital Sun Games is one of several studios that have canceled their upcoming public playtest over fears that someone could ingest the demo into an AI tool and release their own version of their upcoming ReVamp game. Developers have also pressed Valve to explain how they can prevent shady clones from impersonating their games on Steam, prompting the company to offer a rare explanation to developers in South Korea earlier this week. While developers may be relieved that Anthropic at least doesn’t want to actively encourage mass copying of games, this rule can only deter imitators with less effort. Scientists and journalists have repeatedly documented that the safety limits of generative AI tools can be circumvented through the use of rhetorical tricks. It is also unclear how the software could interpret whether or not a user owns a game idea or game assets. And as many users who responded to Chasm pointed out, if Claude becomes too difficult to use, vibe-coding cloners can turn to open models that have no such restrictions. GameDeveloper.com has reached out to Anthropic for comment and will update this story based on their response. ‘non-deterministic cooking errors’ in Unreal Engine Update 10/30: This story was updated with confirmation from Anthropic.
