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Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley called out Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee on Twitter last night, stating the politician was an "idiot" for trash talking 38 Studios' troubled massively multiplayer RPG Project Copernicus.
"I had the good fortune of seeing the game," wrote Smedley. "It looked great. If that idiot Governor Chafee hadn't trash talked right at the time Curt was trying to get funding you would be playing the game now."
Smedley also mentioned 38 Studios' Curt Schilling came to SOE for funding; however, the company never agreed on a deal.
"Anyone with a brain could have told them no one would buy it," Smedley wrote. "They contacted us and I told them so."
"Not that the IP isn't awesome. It's just not strong without the people making it. At various times we looked at it. Always impressed. But the economics were too tough to make work for us. This is a business where risks are large. We had enough balls in the air. More risk was too much for us. I also felt that too much was spent but the quality was undeniable. It was gorgeous. It had smart people working on it. It was just too expensive is all."
Last December, Governor Chaffee called then in-development Copernicus was "a lot of junk" while speaking as a guest on a public affairs show on WJAR-TV. Chafee went on to refer to the state's investment into the development company as "insane" and a "historically bad" decision likely due to panic following an economic collapse in Rhode Island.
"People just panicked and gave a retired baseball player a huge amount of taxpayer money with no experience in this industry or any other businesses," Chafee said. "There was this whole groupthink across the business communities."
Studio head Curt Schilling responded to these comments, stating Chafee "has no clue what he's talking about, never did" and that "Any decision that loses is 'bad' in hindsight, bet RI would like a 'redo' on Gov election too."
Governor Chafee declined to comment when contacted by Polygon.
