In recent years, attention to metaphor has grown in translation studies. However, research mostly focusses on the interlingual translation of metaphors or on recurring metaphors for translational activity at a given moment in history. This article, in contrast, seeks to provide a detailed analysis of one single metaphorical extension (the one that links translation with the concept of game, or play) and its occurrence in contemporary theories of translation. After a discussion of the concepts of “metaphor” and “analogy,” this contribution presents a selection of theoretical works that, in the context of so-called “scientific” translation studies, have linked games and translation. These works have been divided into three categories: translation as play/game, translation as a specific type of game, “playful” translation of “playful” texts and wordplay. After presenting these data, we will attempt to analyse them in order to answer the following question: how can visions that are very different from each other co-exist under the same basic formulation, i.e., the predicative metaphor “translation is a (type of) play/game”?