Anthropic confirmed on October 30, 2026, that it added two sentences to the Claude Code prompt for Opus 5.5, directing the model away from recreating a specific existing game. The stated aim is to steer it away from intellectual-property infringement while leaving original game projects within the intended scope.
Anthropic staff member Addy Osmani confirmed the change and described its purpose.
The instruction targets recreating a specific game
The instruction draws a line between making an original game or a game in a genre and recreating a particular existing game. Its reported wording says that changing the name or calling a recreation original does not change that boundary. Osmani said projects based on users’ own designs and assets are also intended to remain possible. That describes Anthropic’s intent, not a guarantee that every such request will succeed.
Ray Weiss reported refusals in client work
Ray Weiss of Conflict Simulations LLC said he was building commissioned digital board-wargame modules for individual clients who owned the games and supplied the materials. He said the work was not publisher-licensed or intended for public sale or distribution. According to his GitHub issue, the work continued under the new rule until he asked Claude to assess whether the rule applied. He then reported refusals in sessions using the same repositories.
Weiss also said a support bot told him there was no exemption or verification path for commercial professionals, and that his support tickets were passed to human teams without a resolution timeline. The issue record showed his complaint as open when it was updated on November 2, 2026. The issue’s narrative refers to Opus 5.5 sessions, while a separate model field lists “None.”
