Per this past week’s development update comments,
MSFS 2020 product ratings should NOT carry over to 2024. These brand-new products should not have ratings:
To me, it is absolutely bonkers that this is a thing. A product in MSFS 2024 is a completely separate product from its 2020 counterpart. It’s made with a different SDK with different features, it has a different LOD structure to it, it could look different with different rendering, and it’s going to perform differently in a different sim. The developer could also add (or subtract) features from its previous version.
The technical argument should be sufficient enough reason to have separate ratings, but there are other reasons, too:
- A developer with a terrible rating in MSFS 2020 has a brand-new shot to make
something good of their product in 2024 and should not have their 2024 product judged based on its 2020 counterpart. You want to know how good a developer is, overall? Then average out their ratings over their product portfolio and show it to everybody. - Likewise, a developer with a good product in MSFS 2020 that phones it in, creates a mediocre 2024 version, and then charges people for the upgrade ought to get dinged separately in the ratings while their 2020 version stays intact.