AI is mass-decompiling games, raising preservation and IP concerns
Indie game developer Popcar described a recent wave of AI-powered decompilation of existing games, enabling mashups between games and a boom in preservation projects that get old titles running on new hardware, often in browsers via WebAssembly. Simon Willison highlighted the piece's positives and negatives: old games can be ported, modified and enhanced, but anyone could decompile other software and use it freely, companies could take from competitors, and paid games or apps could be open-sourced against their owners' wishes. The topic also drew a Hacker News discussion.
Popcar argues the capability applies to any software, not just old games, and frames it as both a preservation win and a threat to software ownership.
AI is mass decompiling games. That's both awesome and scary.
Simon Willison’s Weblog
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14th October 2026 - Link Blog
AI is mass decompiling games. That's both awesome and scary. (via) Indie game developer Popcar talks about the recent wave of AI-powered decompilation of existing games, enabling weird mashups between existing games, and producing a boom in game preservation projects to get old games working on new hardware (often in a browser using WebAssembly).