May 12th, 2010 
Cliff Riseborough 
Back in 2008, Ubisoft dealt with DRM-related problems with Rainbow Six Vegas 2 by providing a no-CD patch…that turned out to be a no-CD crack available online for some time before that.
Well, it seems that history repeats itself, as the Steam version of Max Payne 2 appears to have used the exact same thing to remove the DRM for that version of the game. As reported by Rock, Paper Shotgun, if one examines the code with a HEX editor, you get a nice image of an ASCII logo for an old Scene group who were actively circumventing game DRM at the time.
What’s amusing about all of this is that these companies constantly complain about these groups cracking the DRM they use, going to extremes in telling everyone who will listen how using these cracks immediately expose you to the worst computer viruses known to man. They’ll make your PC come to horrible life and have its way with your women!
And yet, they are apparently so incapable of removing the DRM FROM THEIR OWN GAMES that they use the exact same thing. This raises two questions :
1. Just how little do these guys understand about the DRM systems they’re using?
2. Just how many of their development machines have sprung to horrible life and made them their slaves? Will we be hearing the lamentations of their women soon?
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I work with a small game DRM company and you’d be amazed about how many of the publishers refuse to adopt best practices with regards to DRM. From the vendor side, we’ve focused on removing barriers to acquisition and promote more flexible forms of use. And yet, the big publisher refuse to ween themselves off the big DRM’s services or adopt more updated processes on projection/licensing. Very frustrating.