Google AI's Project Genie generates Nintendo game clones, raising copyright concerns

Google's New AI Tool Makes Bad Rip-Offs Of Mario, Zelda Games

Google has just started rolling out access to its new “experimental research prototype†Project Genie, an AI tool powered by Genie 3 and Gemini that allows users to create interactive, explorable worlds with a simple text prompt. Unsurprisingly, someone has immediately used it to generate a bunch of playable Nintendo knock-offs, including a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild clone, complete with a usable paraglider. I’m sure that the famously non-litigious Nintendo will be absolutely chill about this. This news comes by way of The Verge’s Jay Peters, who was granted access to Google’s Project Genie tool early, ahead of its official release for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States earlier this afternoon. Peters was able to craft playable reproductions of several famous Nintendo titles, including Super Mario 64 and the aforementioned The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as generating some odd amalgamation of Metroid Prime 3 and Metroid Prime 4. While it might not be immediately apparent in the videos that Peters provided, these Project Genie AI-generations are partially interactive, allowing users to move, jump, and, in the case of that Breath of the Wild one, even paraglide. For the time being, the worlds that it generates are limited to minute-long, 24fps, 720p showcases. So, how is this legal? The short answer is that it isn’t, and Project Genie knows it isn’t. At one point during his testing, Project Genie stopped Peters from making any further Super Mario 64 reproductions, out of concern for the “interests of third-party content providers.â€

Can Google's Project Genie really 'make Mario and Zelda games' from text prompts?

Another week and another new generative AI tool is being described as "game over" for developers. Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US now have access to Project Genie, an interactive world creation tool that lets you generate "playable" environments from text prompts, and there appear to be few controls over what it can do. Early users have already been generating worlds in the style of Nintendo franchises like Mario and Zelda. Some think they're going to be able to generate GTA VI before Rockstar gets round to releasing it, but is Project Genie really usable as game development software? Project Genie is an experimental prototype AI model that allows the use of both text and visual prompts to generate an explorable world and a character to explore it. First up, Google's image generator Nano Banana Pro conjures up an image preview. This can be adjusted as desired. The Genie 3 world model then generates an environment in real-time as the 'player' moves through it. You can move in different ways - walking, running, swimming, flying or even soaring over Hyrule hanging from a glider, as demonstrated by the Verge's Jay Peters in the post below. There's no map pre-loaded in memory. Genie predicts and renders the path ahead in real time as you explore. And it's infinite (for 60 seconds). Google says it's aim with the roll out is to "learn more about immersive user experiences to advance our research and help us better understand the future of world models" Google's new world AI model tool let me generate a bunch of Nintendo-inspired games. Including one featuring Link with a paraglider! Gift link: www.theverge.com/news/869726/... -- @jaypeters.net ( @jaypeters.net.bsky.social) 2026-01-31T23:02:54.599Z At least initially, the model appeared to have few restrictions around the use of copyrighted material. The video above is a fairly convincing approximation of the visual style of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Verge was also able to generate worlds in the style of Super Mario 64, and other users have been posting clips showing worlds in the styles of Harry Potter and Grand Theft Auto. It seems that some IPs have since been blocked. Trying to generate Mario-inspired worlds reportedly now results in a warning message about the "interests of third-party content providers." The Verge was told by Google Deepmind's product manager Diego Rivas that "as with all experiments, we are monitoring closely and listening to user feedback." Will Project Genie the end of video game studios? And will someone generate GTA VI before Rockstar can release it? Only if people are happy to play a game where there's not much to do but look around. Google's claim that Genie can generate "playable worlds" is a bit of an exaggeration. There's a chasmic difference between a game environment and a game - and between a "movable" character and a "playable" one. As one person comments on Google Deepmind's post on X. "Imagine all the vapid, empty open worlds with gameplay equivalent to superman 64 this could make". Although Superman 64 did at least have gameplay. Project Genie is currently can currently only generate for 60 seconds, but then a world with nothing to do in it isn't likely to sustain interest for any longer. It's also limited to a resolution and frame rate of 720p and 24fps, so you're not going anywhere fast. Google's approach to Genie seems to be the same to what we've seen before from Meta, X and Google itself: rush it out as an experiment and then start removing things when people complain. It might soon be getting letters from Nintendo and others, but it can hardly be surprised. When OpenAI launched the Sora 2 AI video generator in October, copyrighted characters were allowed until threats of legal action arrived. Sam Altman expressed an implausible naivety, claiming to have been surprised that brands didn't want people to be able to create racist AI slop with their IPs. There's a possibility the approach is intended to get attention and potentially broker deals. Two months after the Sora 2 controversy, OpenAI and Disney got in bed together with a plan to allow Disney+ viewers to generate videos with the company's characters. Plenty of people believe that auto-generated games will be the future someday, but I'm still not convinced it's a future players will want. Even if people can generate their own games, are they going to be any good? And will everyone want to play their own game that nobody else is playing? Project Genie is only available to over 18s in the US who subscribe to Google's most expensive AI subscription plan, Google AI Ultra. That costs $124.99 per month when signing up for a three-month package.

Google AI Project Genie Allows You to Create Playable Worlds From Prompts, So of Course It's Been Used to Rip Off Nintendo Games Like Mario and Zelda - IGN

Google has begun selling access to Project Genie, an interactive world creation tool that lets you generate playable environments from a prompt -- including those featuring Nintendo characters. The technology is certainly remarkable, as Google's Genie 3 models playable 3D spaces in real time based upon user inputs, and allows you to run, swim, fly, or ride in vehicles around its AI-generated worlds. But the AI technology has also launched with a telling lack of restrictions around copyrighted material -- which the model also appears to have been trained upon. A preview of the possibilities published by The Verge shows its reporter able to create playable 3D scenes that look a direct copy of Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Kingdom Hearts. Footage published on social media shows gameplay clearly based on Nintendo's actual Breath of the Wild, where a knock-off Link runs around a world similar to Hyrule, and accurately deploys a glider as he leaps off a cliff. Other creations include a generated world with similarities to Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto. Right now, Project Genie is limited to generating interactive experiences it can maintain for up to 60 seconds, with a resolution and frame rate capped at around 720p and 24fps. Still, Google is selling access as part of its Google AI Ultra subscription, its top level of access to AI features that costs $124.99 per month when signing up for a three-month package. (Also, Project Genie access is currently just for U.S. subscribers aged 18 or over.) "Project Genie is an experimental research prototype designed to follow prompts a user provides," Google Deepmind product manager Diego Rivas told The Verge when asked why the the product generated material that was clearly based on Nintendo intellectual property. "As with all experiments, we are monitoring closely and listening to user feedback." The Verge noted that its ability to generate worlds based on Mario had subsequently been halted, with a warning message that blamed the "interests of third-party content providers." IGN has contacted Nintendo for comment. The situation feels reminiscent to the rollout of OpenAI's Sora 2 video model last October, which initially allowed users to generate clips featuring licensed Nintendo and Disney characters, including Mario, Darth Vader, Pikachu and an array of other Pokémon. Shortly after, OpenAI vowed to give copyright holders "more granular control" over the creation of what the company's boss Sam Altman dubbed "interactive fan fiction." Less than two months later, Disney said it was investing $1 billion into OpenAI to officially license 200 of its most popular characters for the AI model to use, in a move that the Mickey Mouse owner described as a way to "thoughtfully and responsibly extend" its storytelling.