The thing is, once the userbase dies the game is non-playable. Maybe they’ll update it so you can do stuff without the whole online bit, but I doubt it.

I regularly play games like SMB3 or LTTP, in my opinion masterpieces of gaming which still hold up today. Imagine being a kid today and wanting to replay a game from your childhood later in life. Too bad son, without the live services the game simply isn’t playable.

So I feel the argument can be made for live services being an addition to the game and not the core mechanic.