Myrient
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Founded | 14 October 2022 |
| Dissolved | 31 March 2026 |
| Owner | Alexey |
| URL | https://myrient.erista.me/ |
Myrient was a video game preservation website that provided collections of legacy games for direct download without sign-up or paywalls (such as downloading collections of SNES and Sega Genesis games). The service promoted fast, unrestricted access to archived content and accepted community uploads to build its collections. Its official pages described the project as a preservation-focused archive available to users worldwide. Myrient was part of Erista services, alongside hShop, a website dedicated to Nintendo 3DS games.[1]
History
[edit]Myrient was founded in October 14, 2022 and was operated by a single administrator known publicly as Alexey.[2] It grew into one of the largest freely accessible retro-game archives, hosting an estimated 390 terabytes of organized data information.[3][4]
On February 27, 2026, the owner announced that the site would shut down on 31 March 2026, citing unsustainable operating costs, including sharply higher hosting and hardware expenses driven in part by rising RAM, SSD and HDD prices over "$6,000 out of pocket every month", involving decline of donation support and repeated abuse of download protections by third parties.[5][6] The closure was covered by multiple technology news outlets and triggered community efforts to preserve and download content before the announced shutdown.[7][8] However, a redditor going by the username of u/III-Economist-5285 announced on March 12 that the Minerva Archive, a group that aimed to backup and redistribute Myrient through torrents, had fully backed up Myrient's contents, preserving its total 385 terabytes of data via torrent file generating.[9][10]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Erista | Revolutionizing video game preservation". erista.me. Retrieved 2026-03-02.
- ↑ "Introducing Myrient | hShop". hShop. 2022-10-14. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
- ↑ Wagner, Justin (2026-02-28). "One of the biggest ROM sites around calls it quits as RAM prices surge and donations plateau: 'I have been paying more than $6,000 out of pocket every month'". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2026-02-28. Retrieved 2026-03-02.
- ↑ Parker, Lewis (2026-02-27). "Retro Video Game Preservation Site Myrient Shutting Down". Kotaku. Retrieved 2026-03-05.
- ↑ Posch, Maya (2026-02-27). "Video Game Archive Myrient To Shut Down On March 31". Hackaday. Retrieved 2026-03-02.
- ↑ Maruccia, Alfonso (2026-03-02). "390TB game archive Myrient to shut down as storage costs surge". TechSpot. Archived from the original on 2026-03-02. Retrieved 2026-03-02.
- ↑ Morales, Jowi (2026-02-28). "390TB video game archive being taken offline due to skyrocketing RAM, SSD, and hard drive prices — AI-driven supply squeeze results in closure of one of the largest online video game archives". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 2026-03-02.
- ↑ Cunningham, Kendall (2026-03-02). "Massive Video Game Archive With 390TB Worth of Games is Shutting Down". Game Rant. Retrieved 2026-03-02.
- ↑ McFerran, Damien (February 27, 2026). "Video Game Preservation Archive Myrient Has Been "100% Backed Up" By The Community". Time Extension. Archived from the original on March 12, 2026. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
- ↑ Tyson, Mark (2026-03-15). "385TB video game archive saved by fans — Myrient has been '100% backed up' and validated, torrents being generated". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 2026-03-15.