Anthropic has quietly added a hard-coded rule to Claude Code — its AI coding assistant, that blocks attempts to recreate existing video games, effective on the Opus 5.5 model since around October 27. The restriction is server-side, non-removable, and applies even if the user renames the output or calls it ‘original’.”}Claude Code now refuses requests to rebuild specific titles, like Glider 4.0, Drunken Goddess Reflux, or any game with a public demo, regardless of intent or framing.
It’s not a filter you can toggle off. The flag behind it is named tengu_heron_brook. Anthropic confirmed the change via Addy Osmani, a technical staff member, who said it enforces the company’s existing usage policy against intellectual property infringement, not by scanning code, but by steering the model away from known-game recreation at the prompt level.
That means no more “reimplement Tetris in React” or “clone Stardew Valley using Phaser.” Even genre-based scaffolding remains allowed, as long as it’s not tied to a specific shipped title. The move follows backlash during Valve’s Steam Next Fest in October, where developers reported flooded feeds with AI-generated clones of recently demoed games.
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