Corporations have a tendency to add ridiculous requirements to their terms of service to legally protect themselves from liability in case of even the least likely of scenarios–it’s just one of the many reasons so many people sign them without reading. Amazon, however, has rewarded thorough customers with a funny new clause in its expanded terms of service for Amazon Web Services, which limits its liability in the event of a zombie outbreak.
A clause in the terms for Lumberyard, Amazon’s new free video game engine, tells designers not to use the engine to make “life-critical” software, such as self-driving cars and medical equipment, though the restriction would be waived in the event of a viral outbreak triggering a undead-driven apocalypse.
“57.10 Acceptable Use; Safety-Critical Systems. Your use of the Lumberyard Materials must comply with the AWS Acceptable Use Policy. The Lumberyard Materials are 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. 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.”
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Now, I’m not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt, but in layman’s terms it seems like this says that designers who use Lumberyard can sue Amazon if they use the engine to build a life-saving piece of software that somehow fails, but only if zombies are real… That seems fair, right?
Announced Tuesday, Lumberyard is a free 3D game engine for making PC and console games, similar to popular platforms, such as Unity and Unreal Engine 4. At first glance, the service’s main distinguishing features are tools for expanded integration with Twitch, another Amazon’s gaming-related service. Amazon said it plans to add mobile and VR support. Amazon also announced GameLift, a service offering scalable server support for games with online multiplayer.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.