Amazon announced a new game engine called Lumberyard yesterday. It's based on the powerful CryEngine and is completely free for developers to use — it's just that they have to buy any necessary cloud services from Amazon, which is already the leader in the space. Sounds like an okay deal for some, right?

Well, as ever, it's worth reading the small print. Turns out that certain uses are restricted; Lumberyard is "not intended for use with life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat," according to clause 57.10 of Amazon's AWS service terms.

So you can't use Lumberyard to wage warfare. Got it. But wouldn't it be useful to have a free game engine on hand, just in case humanity needed software to power the wanton tools of destruction needed to take on a marauding horde of zombies?

However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.

Okay, we're good. Thanks, Amazon.