Deep Silver and Valve have resolved the problem, but customers already affected need to e-mail Steam's customer support for a fix.
Some Dead Island: Riptide customers on PC have been accidentally receiving copies of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition instead.
The issue (spotted by MCV) affected boxed retail copies sold in the United Kingdom and some Nordic territories. Dead Island: Riptide is a Steamworks game, so even retail copies require authentication through the Steam platform.
Deep Silver and Valve have fixed the problem, and say anybody redeeming a code today will receive Dead Island: Riptide. Customers that have already received a copy of Dark Souls in error will need to e-mail Steam's customer support for a fix.
Deep Silver community manager Maurice Tan took to the Steam forums to discuss the gaffe. "It seems that codes for Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition have made their way into Dead Island Riptide retail boxes in some countries," he said.
"Dark Souls is an amazing game, but you probably bought Dead Island Riptide to play Dead Island Riptide! For those of you who don't know this, Dark Souls is also not a Deep Silver game. We are aware of this mix up by whoever printed these codes for a completely different game from a different publisher, and are working on a best possible solution to help affected players and retailers."