Gamers are using AI to help vibe-code mods and even mashing up games that clearly don't belong together, like Kingdom Hearts and Skyrim. Now companies are starting to get involved to shut down projects--Bethesda reportedly sent a cease and desist to the vibe coder behind Fallout New York.
Gamers are running wild with AI right now, using it to help create new game mashups and break the limits of older games through recomps. But the trend may start to face stronger opposition from the companies that own the IPs.
Fallout New York was a browser-based game made entirely with Claude Opus 5.5. According to the creator, Chrisfirst, it only took 5 days and everything was made with code. The gameplay was low-poly and wouldn't pass as a modern game, but it was more of a proof of concept to show what was possible. Now it appears that Bethesda has shut down the project with a cease and desist.
This is newsworthy primarily because this new trend is accelerating at a rapid rate. Millions of people are seeing these types of posts and curiosity and interest into these self-made games may be piqued and catch on long-term. It's possible that more gamers could look into these localized, decentralized communities to create custom homebrew versions of games over time, which could impact the playerbases of top franchises.
The ease of access to Fallout New York is another key point to underline; anyone could access the Claude-coded Fallout game directly in their browser and play.
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It will be interesting to see how the big players react to this trend, and if AI will become more and more widely used to make vibe-coded experiences.
