The "video game preservation service" Myrient is shutting down in March

Myrient is a popular "video game preservation service" that has over 390 terabytes of classics but it's about to go offline forever. This will no doubt be a big loss for many people looking to find classics that aren't available elsewhere, or have to resort to websites that force you through many hoops to get them.

While the legality of what they do may be questionable, since they (like many other sites that host ROMs and other classics) don't have permission from the original rights holders - it's still a loss for overall game preservation to see such a big service go.

In a statement posted to Discord and Telegram the owner mentioned they simply don't have enough funds to continue it, and that various third-party download managers that bypass the website entirely weren't helping. That, and hardware costs due to AI increasing too.

From the Telegram post:

Information about the closure of Myrient

Hello everyone,

I have decided to shut down Myrient on 31 March 2026. Until then, the site will continue to remain available in its current state. Please download any content you find important, as you have around one month to do so.

There are several reasons for the closure:
- Insufficient funding
As traffic continued to increase last year, the amount of funding from donations remained the same. I have been paying more than $6000 out of pocket every month in order to cover the difference which is not sustainable.

- Paywalled download managers
In the past several months, many specialized download managers were created that completely bypassed the site, donation messages, and download protections. Some of these download managers locked certain features behind a paywall that required users to pay in order to gain access. The use of Myrient for commercial, for-profit purposes has always been strictly forbidden. Such egregious and abusive usage of the site cannot be tolerated anymore.

- Rising RAM, SSD, and HDD prices
Since last September, RAM, SSD, and HDD prices have surged dramatically and continue to rise due to the ongoing extreme demand for AI datacenters. This has caused Myrient's hosting expenses to go up as well. Necessary upgrades to the storage and caching infrastructure only exacerbated the problem. With a large number of servers and the aforementioned existing monthly deficit in excess of $6000 out of pocket, there is no way to pay for the increased hosting and hardware upgrade costs.

There are still many other smaller reasons, I could go on and on about them, but nobody would want to read it.

In short, I can no longer afford to run the site.

If you have any comments, you can send them to [email protected] (I will read all of them and might respond to a few).

Thanks for using Myrient over the years.

If only there was an easier way to get classic games that was 100% legal and supported. A complicated issue though, considering the amount of developers and publishers for older games that simply don't exist now. There's no really good solution for that.

This is why I appreciate all the work GOG do to keep older games alive. But even they have issues, as publishers at times still decide to completely delist older games. Some publishers do get older games re-released too, and while they may not always land perfectly at least some try.