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TL;DR
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said companies should protect their own and others’ intellectual property after an interviewer asked about AI tools and game cloning. He described the issue as a creative concern rather than a financial threat, while saying piracy may become more challenging. The interview did not identify a specific cloned Take-Two game or accuse either AI company of a particular infringement.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said companies should protect both their own and other people’s intellectual property after IGN asked about AI tools that can help users recreate video games. His comments, published November 9, 2026, addressed AI companies’ intellectual-property policies but did not identify a specific cloned game or accuse Anthropic or OpenAI of a particular infringement.
In the phone interview, IGN managing editor Wesley Yin-Poole asked Zelnick about reports of hackers using AI to clone games and whether unofficial versions of Take-Two’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI would threaten the business. Zelnick said he did not view the issue as a financial threat, but called it a creative concern tied to delivering the experience Rockstar Games intends and protecting its intellectual property.
Yin-Poole then asked about Anthropic’s newly added restriction on recreating existing games and whether OpenAI should take a similar step. Zelnick replied: “I think all companies should be protecting intellectual property, their own and everyone else’s.” He added that it seemed ironic for companies in the intellectual-property business to “stomp on someone else’s IP and hope that yours is protected.” The remarks were framed as a general principle; he did not specify what conduct he meant by that phrase.
On Take-Two’s earnings call the same day, Zelnick said piracy was likely to become “more of a challenge” and that the company was strengthening technical defenses and legal activity. He also said technical limitations had made it difficult to reproduce the experience of playing Take-Two’s games as intended. Those comments do not establish that a specific game has been cloned or that a particular AI service was used.
AI coding agents and existing games · as of Nov 14, 2026
Prompt in, game out: where the line runs
Three example requests (illustrative, not real cases) and what each vendor’s published rules say about them.
- Example request
“An original racing game with my own art”own idea, own assets
Claude Code (Anthropic)AllowedRule text: build original games and games from the user’s own designs and assets
Codex / policies (OpenAI)No objectionNothing in the published usage policies against it
- Example request
“A heist game with mechanics like [a named hit]”a game named as a reference
Claude Code (Anthropic)Allowed since v2.1.317Builds an original game in that genre, per Anthropic
Codex / policies (OpenAI)No game rule foundNo game-specific instruction in the Codex CLI code
- Example request
“Rebuild [a specific game], just rename it”a copy under a new name
Claude Code (Anthropic)Not allowedCovers its name, characters, art, music, levels or look; offers to build something similar
Codex / policies (OpenAI)General IP banUsage policies bar attempts to infringe IP; no game-specific rule found
Outside the tools: Take-Two says it relies on its own “technical defenses” and “legal activities”. Copyright and trademark law apply whichever tool writes the code.
The requests are our own illustrations. The rows summarize published rules, not tests of how the tools behave. ChatGPT’s and Codex Web’s server-side instructions are not public.
Sources: Claude Code program text, versions 2.1.317 to 2.1.325, and Anthropic’s statement of Nov 4, 2026 (via Tom’s Hardware); OpenAI usage policies, version effective Nov 20, 2026 (Internet Archive copy of Oct 28, 2026); Codex CLI repository on GitHub, checked Nov 14, 2026; Take-Two fiscal Q2 2027 earnings call, Nov 9, 2026.
Graphic: Powered by Thorsten Meyer AI
Questions Around Game-Recreation Rules
The discussion covered two questions: whether AI tools should help users reproduce a named game, and how companies behind those tools protect intellectual property. A restriction on a tool may limit some user requests, but it does not by itself resolve questions about model training, the use of generated material, or whether a particular output infringes rights. Zelnick’s comments addressed the relationship between those issues without making a specific allegation.
AI-assisted copying could involve elements such as characters, art, music, levels or a game’s overall presentation. The interview provided no evidence about the scale of such activity, its financial effect, or whether it has affected Take-Two’s releases.
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What the Tools’ Rules Say
Anthropic’s Claude Code coding agent has, since version 2.1.317, published November 2, instructed its model not to create a recreation of a specific existing game using elements such as its name, characters, art, music, levels or look, even if renamed or described as original. Anthropic grounds the instruction in its usage policy, which bars infringement of third-party intellectual property. The wording addresses recreating a game; it does not specifically refer to reverse engineering or decompiling one.
OpenAI’s usage policies prohibit attempts to infringe others’ intellectual-property rights. The source report said it found no game-specific instruction in the open-source code of OpenAI’s Codex CLI coding agent. These are different forms of guidance, and the absence of a game-specific instruction in that code is not proof that OpenAI has no other relevant safeguards.
The interview took place on the evening Take-Two reported results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. The question linked game cloning with piracy and console jailbreaks; Zelnick’s answers addressed both protection of intellectual property and the creative experience, but did not describe a particular incident involving GTA VI.
“I think all companies should be protecting intellectual property, their own and everyone else’s.”
— Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive chairman and CEO, in an IGN interview published November 9, 2026
Specific Allegations Remain Absent
Zelnick did not name a product, a cloned title, or a specific case, and he did not clarify whether “stomp on someone else’s IP” referred to users’ outputs, the development or training of AI models, or another practice. The interview does not confirm that Claude or ChatGPT has been used to clone a Take-Two game.
It also remains unclear how often AI-assisted game recreation is occurring, whether it has caused measurable losses, and how the companies enforce their policies in practice. The source report found no public response from Anthropic or OpenAI to Zelnick’s remarks as of 21:30 UTC on November 14, 2026. That is a time-limited status, not confirmation that either company has no response.
Policy Responses and Enforcement
The next developments to watch are any public response from Anthropic or OpenAI, changes to their published policies or coding-agent instructions, and further details from Take-Two about its anti-piracy measures. A specific claim about a cloned game would require evidence identifying the work, the tool or activity involved, and the alleged use of protected material; none was supplied in the interview described here.
For now, the confirmed development is limited to Zelnick’s comments and the companies’ stated policies. Whether those rules prevent game recreation in practice, and how any disputed outputs would be assessed, remains unresolved.
Key Questions
Did Zelnick accuse Anthropic or OpenAI of cloning a Take-Two game?
No. He made a general criticism about protecting intellectual property and did not identify a specific AI product, game, or infringement case.
What did Zelnick say about the business risk?
He said he did not see AI-assisted cloning as a financial threat to Take-Two’s business at that point, but called it a creative concern. On the earnings call, he said piracy could become more challenging.
What restriction did Anthropic add to Claude Code?
The instruction tells the model not to create a recreation of a specific existing game using elements including its name, characters, art, music, levels or look, even if the result is renamed or called original. It does not specifically mention reverse engineering or decompiling.
Did OpenAI announce a game-specific rule?
OpenAI’s usage policies prohibit attempts to infringe others’ intellectual-property rights. The source report found no game-specific instruction in the open-source Codex CLI code, but that finding does not establish that no other relevant safeguards exist.
Has an AI-generated copy of GTA VI been confirmed?
No such copy was identified in the interview or the source report. Zelnick discussed a question about the possibility of unofficial versions, not a confirmed GTA VI clone.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
