Anthropic said Claude Code on Opus 5.5 should avoid recreating someone else’s specific existing game, even if the request gives it a new name or calls it original. The instruction targets recreations of particular games, while Anthropic says original games, genre-based projects, and work built from a user’s own designs and assets are meant to keep working. Addy Osmani, an Anthropic staff member, described the prompt change on October 30, 2026, in a post on X.
What Anthropic’s rule targets
Osmani said Anthropic added two sentences to Claude Code’s prompt for Opus 5.5. The described restriction concerns recreating a specific existing game; changing its title or presenting the recreation as original does not change the request’s target.
For a game project, focus on what the request asks Claude to recreate: Anthropic’s stated boundary is a specific existing game, while its intended working categories include original and genre-based games and projects built from your own designs and assets.
Which game projects are meant to keep working
Anthropic’s stated intent includes original games, games in a genre, and projects built from the user’s own designs and assets. That describes the categories the prompt change is meant to leave working, not a guarantee of how Claude will respond to every request.
What a reported test found
In tests he reported for PCMag, Ruben Circelli said Claude helped with modding, decompilation, and porting, while refusing some requests to recreate specific games. He also reported refusals when proposed recreations used new code and assets. Those are Circelli’s individual observations, not a measure of how often Claude accepts or rejects requests.
Circelli also reported a refusal on a digital board-game project intended for personal use. That case gives no general assurance that a personal project will be accepted, and does not establish a blanket rule against personal adaptations.
