Activision has issued a global recall for Call of Duty following a “design error” that accidentally changed the game’s formula.

At a press conference today, an Activision spokesperson explained that “correct corporate procedures were not followed” and, as a result, the core Call of Duty gameplay was accidentally tinkered with to introduce “deviant levels of fresh thinking”.

“We’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to our customers for asking them to make choices during the game which could possibly change or alter the outcome in a meaningful way,” said the spokesperson.

“Allowing player agency in Call of Duty is strongly against our core beliefs and we’re very disappointed that our QA department did not catch this error in time.”

Copies of the game can be returned to the place of purchase, with Activision promising a replacement copy that has a “properly linear story” where your choices mean “absolutely nothing, because you won’t get any choices”.

Sources inside Activision tell us that executives only noticed the error when a last-minute playthrough of the game caused one board member to exclaim aloud that the storyline was “really interesting” and he “couldn’t wait to see how it ended”, which raised a red flag with the production team.