They use AI to recreate games like GTA, Halo and Call of Duty and allow them to be played for free from the browser

They use AI to recreate games like GTA, Halo and Call of Duty and allow them to be played for free from the browser

Artificial intelligence is allowing amateur programmers reconstruct some of the most popular video games of recent decades and offer them for free on the Internet, in many cases without the need to download or install them, and they can be played in the browser. The phenomenon is growing rapidly and has provoked the reaction of large companies such as Activision, nintendo and Take-Two Interactivewhich attempt to prevent the distribution of these unauthorized versions.

These are the so-called ‘recovered games’projects in which fans resort to reverse engineering to reconstruct commercial titles from their original files. One of the techniques used is decompilationwhich consists of analyzing the files of a video game to try to reconstruct the code with which it was programmed and understand how it works. Another possibility is program them from scratch studying its graphics, mechanics and behavior, without accessing the original code.

Traditionally, this work could take months or even years. However, artificial intelligence models such as Claude Opus 5.5of Anthropicand GPT Astraof OpenAIare considerably speeding up the process and reducing it to days.

Among the titles that have been the subject of these recreations are Halo: Combat Evolved, GTA III, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, Call of Duty Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Skate 3, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Super Mario 64 and others.

OpenCEfor example, is a revamped version of the first Halo, originally published in 2001, which incorporates graphic improvements and new functionalities. In this case, the user is required have a copy of the original gameprobably in an attempt to protect themselves from copyright infringement, something that also happens in re3 and reVCbased on GTA III and GTA: Vice City. Other recreations of these titles that have appeared are playable in the browser without having to download anything or having the original game.

Some programmers have taken this whole trend to swampier terrain. One of them created a recreation of the island Little Saint James of Jeffrey Epsteinwith the Halo aesthetic and executable from a browser, which included a nautical-themed temple.

One of the most striking cases is that of the artificial intelligence researcher Luckey Faradaythat used GPT Astra to develop versions of Call of Duty executable from a browser. Among them was a recreation of Black Ops II multiplayer, which he later also adapted to have the look of minecraft.

Faraday published his projects in X, but the platform temporarily suspended his account after receiving a claim for copyright infringement protected by US DMCA legislation. The developer ended up withdrawing several of its recreations. ‘I removed the games just in case,’ he explained to the New York Post.

The situation represents a problem for the companies that own these video games, who see How AI facilitates the emergence of unauthorized copies and versions at a speed that is difficult to control. Although they may require their removal, programmers now have tools to rebuild them much more quickly.

It is not a new situation, Nintendo has already taken action against free versions of Super Mario 64 in 2020 and Take-Two did the same in 2021 with projects based on GTA III and Vice City, before generative AI The difference is that Artificial intelligence is considerably reducing the technical barriers to developing these recreations.