The clickbait thing is obviously true, but I have to ask;

Were people so looking forward to and had such high hopes for ReCore that a low/mediocre score would even be click worthy?

Not a knock on the game, since I've seen gameplay and it looks like a fun but flawed game, but I'm genuinely curious. Monster games like CoD or major exclusives like Last of Us getting a low score might gather clicks, but.. ReCore? Is that the one you're going to make this argument for, Phil?

Yep. If anything the deliberate lower scores would be more likely to happen to universally loved games as people like being contrarian.

The average person doesn't listen or care about what Phil Spencer says though.

He actually used Horizon3 as an example. It was more to say the lowest of the lows (and their effect on the Meta) should be taken with a grain of salt. Pretty sure most developers and gamers feel this way.

Lot of enjoyable games get dragged down into a 'number range' where people decide not to experience it on their own.

Scratching my head on why people would think his statement is not accurate .. :-/

Whether true or not, as a creator myself I find it really sleezy whenever a creator or representative of a creator tries to fob off criticism by categorizing them as somehow irrelevant. Let your fans defend you, you - as the creator - have a responsibility to observe and listen to criticism and respond with improvements or rational counferpoints. That's how art moves forward.

And as for ReCore, I can't say I see it for the most part since the dominant complaints seen that even lower scores of people who like the game (Jim Sterling for example) are technical ones and length, which are pretty objective things.

And some others give high scores for a paycheck or to keep receiving copies.

I wonder how many people are going to continue to comment on this without reading the full quote. He was talking about Forza Horizon 3.

I saw.  However 1) it doesn't change what I said and 2) he also brought up ReCore so I commented on that and 3) I haven't read the reviews of FH3 so I didn't want to comment on something I am unfamiliar with.

Dear Phil,

You were one of the better things that had happened with the year long debacle call the Xbox One. But even you are showing signs of the old guard. You're not gonna get the reviews you want for whatever reasons on any website. Get over it. This reminded me of Sony when poor Lair reviews were released. Phil, just don't go there, and all will be good. Remember, if you feel a need a justify, you're probably guilty. There are exceptions, but this clearly isn't the case. Bye.

-L