Lil Gator Game beta invites are a "scam", says publisher Playtonic

Playtonic has issued a warning after it received word that someone is issuing "scam" beta invites for a game it is publishing later this year.

Although the publisher stopped short of clarifying what, exactly, happens if you click the links inviting players to try Lil Gator Game - we can only presume it involves some kind of virus or malware - Playtonic issued an instruction over the weekend that players should "NOT click the links provided" in the scam emails.

"It has come to our attention that someone is offering beta testing for Lil Gator Game," Playtonic revealed (thanks, NME). "We can confirm this is a SCAM and not from Playtonic or Lil Gator Game.

"If we were offering this to our communities we would announce it on our Twitter and not via any other channels."

That's not all, though. To push the message further, a follow up tweet added: "Please do NOT click the links provided in the scam message! If you receive any suspicious messages claiming to be from Playtonic please let us know. Stay safe everyone."

As for how players can know if the invite they've received is real or not? Well, that's easy; neither Playtonic nor developer MegaWobble have any plans to run a beta, so any invites you receive are definitely fake.

"We will not be doing beta testing for Lil Gator Game as we had a demo up on Steam last year and part of this year and received great feedback from the community," the publisher explained. "If this changes we'll definitely announce it here and on Steam."

Not come across Lil Gator Game before? The official description says you'll get to "embark on an adorable adventure, discover new friends and uncover everything the island has to offer. Climb, Swim, Glide and slide your way into the hearts of the many different characters you meet on your travels!"

Yooka-Laylee studio Playtonic will soon be working on a sequel to the 2017 platformer following an investment from Tencent.  

The China-based technology conglomerate Tencent has made a "sizeable investment" into UK developer Playtonic which will allow the studio to double its headcount, expand to three development teams, and create more games, one of which will be a sequel to 2017’s Yooka-Laylee. 

There are plenty of big titles on our upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games lists that you can get stuck into while you wait for the real Lil Gator Game to arrive later this year.