It might sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but tech company Amazon has added a zombie apocalypse clause to its terms of service. The updated terms of service covers the company's new game-development software called Lumberyard.

According to USA Today, the zombie apocalypse clause is hidden deep in the 26,000-word explanation of all the restrictions regarding the use of Lumberyard, Amazon's free opens-source video game development software.

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It clearly states in Number 57.10 that the software should not be used with "life-critical or safety-critical machines." This means that software should not be used in systems such as medical equipment or self-driving cars. That is, until the United States Center for Disease Control declares a zombie apocalypse, in which case users can freely use it.

As posted on Amazon's official website, the company describes the zombie apocalypse event as: "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."

While some people might take the statement as a joke, some analysts consider it as a clever publicity stunt. In fact, the zombie apocalypse clause hidden in Amazon's terms of agreement hashelped to publicize Lumberyard.

Lumberyard is exclusively tied to Amazon's cloud service. Developers, who want to use Lumberyard to create their video game projects and host it online, must use Amazon's servers or their own private services. Lumberyard is also integrated in Amazon's live-streaming website Twitch.

This is not the first time a company or organization has used the zombie scare tactic to get the public's attention. In 2011, the Center for Disease Control released a document entitled "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse."

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