A major retro game preservation effort is preparing to shut down, and rising storage costs are a big reason why. Myrient, a widely recognized archive focused on preserving classic video games, is expected to go offline late next month—bringing uncertainty to a collection that reportedly spans a staggering 390 TB of data.
According to the project’s founder, Alexey, uploads have already been halted. With the service still online for now, users are being encouraged to download anything they want while access remains available. That message carries extra weight because Myrient wasn’t built like a typical download site. It operated without ads, relied entirely on community donations, and didn’t impose download limits—policies that made it popular with enthusiasts and researchers who care about digital preservation and long-term access to retro gaming history.
But those same open policies have allegedly become part of the problem. Alexey says Myrient’s lack of download caps has been exploited by for-profit groups using specialized download managers designed to pull enormous amounts of data from the servers. As traffic increased, the costs of keeping such a storage-heavy platform running rose sharply, yet donations didn’t grow enough to cover the expanding financial burden.
The timing reflects a broader trend hitting many online archives and hosting projects. Storage hardware and related infrastructure have become more expensive, and large-scale data demands across the industry have placed additional strain on supply and operations. Running a library measured in hundreds of terabytes is already financially challenging; when prices climb and bandwidth-heavy use spikes, the pressure can become unsustainable—especially for a donation-funded, ad-free preservation project.
Alexey also hinted there are “many other smaller reasons” contributing to the decision, but did not elaborate. For now, the takeaway is clear: Myrient’s future is limited, and anyone who values retro game preservation may want to plan accordingly while the servers remain accessible.
