Anthropic Tells Claude Code Not to Clone Existing Games[1]
Using Claude to infringe intellectual property violates Anthropic’s usage policy, the company’s Addy Osmani said.[2]
Anthropic has added instructions to Claude Code on Opus 5.5 that steer it away from recreating specific existing games, Addy Osmani confirmed.[1] XDA independently verified the rule in Claude Code version 2.1.314, released October 30.[3]
For creators, Osmani said original games, genre games and projects using their own designs and assets should remain unaffected.[5]
To check your installed version, Anthropic’s documentation says to run claude --version.[4]
Describe the game you want to build through your own designs and assets, not as a copy of an existing title.
HOW WE CHECKED IT
Every fact above is a numbered claim below. Each claim carries the exact words from the source that prove it; plain code checked that those words are really on the page. Then DeepSeek (deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017) and Gemini (google/gemini-4-argon) voted on every claim without seeing each other's votes or the reporter's evidence, and a copy desk checked that every line says no more than its claims. No lab checks its own news. Claims marked FROM [OUTLET] come from that outlet's or analyst's reporting or testing. The Council checked that the source says it.
"We added two sentences to Claude Code’s prompt on Opus 5.5 to steer it away from recreating someone else’s specific game" SOURCE ↗
"because using Claude to infringe IP is against our usage policy." SOURCE ↗
"XDA later independently verified that the new rule appears in version 2.1.314 of the Claude Code binary, which was released on October 30" SOURCE ↗
"Run claude --version to check your installed version." SOURCE ↗
"Osmani clarified that any original game, genre game or games that are made with a user's own designs and assets should be unaffected" SOURCE ↗
The reporter filed 5 more claims that were cut by the check or left out of the final copy, so they aren't published.
SOURCES
PUBLISHED NOV 2, 2026, 1:56 PM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:40 AM ET · SHA-256 945c76d81c92
PUBLISHED NOV 2, 2026, 1:05 PM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:40 AM ET · SHA-256 1897f6b15923
PUBLISHED NOV 3, 2026, 4:48 AM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:40 AM ET · SHA-256 67be0d43cae1
PUBLISHED UNKNOWN · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:41 AM ET · SHA-256 fd7c58de2a6e
PUBLISHED OCT 30, 2026, 5:25 AM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:41 AM ET · SHA-256 9f5c52b35fab
PUBLISHED OCT 28, 2026, 1:24 AM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:41 AM ET · SHA-256 5f3378729b37
PUBLISHED OCT 31, 2026, 8:20 AM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:41 AM ET · SHA-256 e42d4c624994
PUBLISHED NOV 1, 2026, 4:08 PM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 3, 2026, 11:41 AM ET · SHA-256 a2ba631bb528
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