L’adaptation en jeu vidéo d‘En attendant Godot n’a pas fait rire les avocats des Éditions de Minuit.

« Ultimately, I wanted to make something selfish, something I thought would be funny without ever considering the audience’s opinion. Taking all the fun out of a game is funny. Basing a game on a play where nothing happens is funny. And people played it! One guy told me he made it to the surprise at level 99. That still amazes me. What a great guy. I mean, I can barely make it to level 99. The game is pretty difficult in a way, but rather than testing your reflexes, it tests your patience.

[…]

To quote one of the several cease and desist letters I received from the French lawyers representing the Beckett estate, “Unfortunately we do not share your sense of humor.” They asked me to change the name “Waiting for Godot,” because they held the rights to it. Under American law, my game is considered parody and is protected under fair use, but I complied since I’m just a college kid who can’t really afford a lawyer. So I changed the name to “Samuel Becketttt’s Lawyers Present: Waiting for Grodoudou.” I even explicitly stated on my website that my game is now referring to the Australian Samuel Becketttt, not to be confused with the Irish Samuel Beckett. They didn’t appreciate that. So now it’s just called “Game.” Personally, I find it ironic that a publishing house established to surreptitiously print works censored by occupying Germans wants so strongly to censor my game. »

The Rumpus Interview with Mike Rosenthal