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Ubisoft uses Reloaded crack as patch

Published on 21st July 2008 by Joe Martin

Ubisoft has released a patch for Rainbow Six Vegas 2 which makes use of illegal no-CD cracks.

Ubisoft has recently released a patch for the Direct2Drive release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 addressing problems caused by a previous patch which caused the game to look for a CD that obviously wasn't there. That's the good news.

The funny news is that, in an effort to get the patch out quickly, Ubisoft used a no-CD crack made by the pirating ring Reloaded to circumvent it's own copy protection methods. Nice.

The problem first started last month with a new patch for the game that added in new play modes and upgrades, but reintroduced CD checks for a version of the game what was never sold with a CD. For a month, Ubisoft was stumped by the problem - but not everybody was.

The cracking ring known as Reloaded in fact quickly found a way around the disk check by releasing a hacked executable. Ubisoft explicitly forbade discussion of the crack on the forums, but that doesn't seem to have stopped the publisher from incorporating the crack into an official release according to RockPaperShotgun.

The whole thing was exposed when wily gamers cracked open the patch to have a look at it and saw that Ubisoft had not removed the signatures imprinted on the original crack by Team Reloaded.

Ubisoft has now removed the file from the site and said that the matter is being thoroughly investigated.

"Needless to say we do not support or condone copy protection circumvention methods like this and this particular incident is in direct conflict with Ubisoft's policies," said the company in an official statement.

Have you ever used a crack or torrent for 'legitimate' purposes and been stung? Let us know in the forums.

22 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

Omertron 21st July 2008, 10:23

Generally speaking, I like to use a No-CD patch to stop the games from loading all sorts of "protection" onto my machine and killing it.
I've had no-end of trouble in the past from the likes of StarForce etc. so now I use no-cd patches to allow me to play games I own without adding protection that I don't need or want.

[USRF]Obiwan 21st July 2008, 10:58

well, I use no-dvd patches now (time changes see) basically because I make a ISO from the original game. The original goes into the cupboard and the ISO stays on HD. So i play from the ISO, its faster also. And sometimes this needs a no-dvd patch.

Panos 21st July 2008, 11:06

I use no-DVD/CD patches. It's so faster to load the games, and the system boot faster on restart.
How many times we forgot a CD/DVD into the drive and windows need 10 times more to boot than normal?
And is the hassle of losing the disks when you want to play different things on the same period.

Hustler 21st July 2008, 11:08

Lol...the Reloaded team will live off this for years.......

Brett89 21st July 2008, 11:09

i've used no cd cracks to get around only one disk drive, i play a few games casually at a time so it's nice not having to look for a cd every time someone says, get in the renegade game or come play bf2, all legitimately

Liquid K9 21st July 2008, 11:15

haha this is pure gold.

doesnt this count as copyright theft?

Baz 21st July 2008, 12:55

unsurprisingly, Reloaded don't file for copyright on thier cracks, so no.

Delphium 21st July 2008, 12:57

HRHRHR, what a nice ironic twist to wake up to

Liquid K9 21st July 2008, 13:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baz
unsurprisingly, Reloaded don't file for copyright on thier cracks, so no.

AFAIK you dont have to file for copyright, its optional. certainly thats true here in europe land, dunno about americkaworld though.

zabe 21st July 2008, 15:04

This is another demonstration that we should never trust companies. I travel A LOT around the world and I refuse to be under the obligation to carry my game dvds with me all the time. It takes space, time, and if I'm really strict, my game dvds will get scratched over time from so much use, and my laptop will use more electricity.

So, after I proudly pay for original content, I then ALWAYS go find a crack that will negate the CD check. So much for ensuring their content, pirates just download games and have them ready and hassle-free to play "out of the box", whereas I pay and then have to search for some method not to be in the need for a CD every single time I want to play a game, wherever in the world I am. Just another proof that it's us paying customers who are damaged by the whole situation.

So, to reloaded and the rest of groups out there, keep coding nice no-cd cracks, cos I refuse to take my game dvds all around the world just because companies want me to. I already paid, then I'll do whatever I want with my game.

Project_Nightmare 21st July 2008, 16:45

Looks like another case where pirating has improved the gaming industry Bravo Ubisoft!

pendragon 21st July 2008, 18:08

ha.. that's funny.. .and yea, i quite often use a no-cd crack on a game.. just because gamers are lazy and it avoids having to remember to put the CD in :P

johnmustrule 21st July 2008, 18:32

wouldn't releasing a patch to remove the copy protection been just the same as the one they did?

Redbeaver 21st July 2008, 22:01

lol

Nice. nuff said.

LordPyrinc 21st July 2008, 22:10

Probably some new coder less than two years with the company says "Hey boss, I've got all our worries fixed". Boss says, "Good work!", not bothering about the details because he is too busy managing people and wouldn't know how to read code anyways.

It's funny as hell, but I could see it easily happening. Probably happens a lot more than we ever hear about.

DXR_13KE 21st July 2008, 23:39

it has happened lots of times before, i dont remember any of them but there are some games that the last patch they get, the one that makes it not check for a cd, is in fact a no-cd crack from a notorious group.

airchie 22nd July 2008, 00:15

LMFAO @ Ubi!!! :D:D:D

Man, when will they learn to stop inconveniencing their customers? :D

PhenomRed 22nd July 2008, 06:15

i go buy a game, i then download a no-cd/dvd crack. i'm not gonna spend $80-100 on a game and have the disc get scratched by being used

entri3 22nd July 2008, 07:35

wow now they use crackers technology to help themselves out warez can't be to bad then huh http://windowzxp.com/demo.gif

knuck 22nd July 2008, 13:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by zabe
This is another demonstration that we should never trust companies. I travel A LOT around the world and I refuse to be under the obligation to carry my game dvds with me all the time. It takes space, time, and if I'm really strict, my game dvds will get scratched over time from so much use, and my laptop will use more electricity.

So, after I proudly pay for original content, I then ALWAYS go find a crack that will negate the CD check. So much for ensuring their content, pirates just download games and have them ready and hassle-free to play "out of the box", whereas I pay and then have to search for some method not to be in the need for a CD every single time I want to play a game, wherever in the world I am. Just another proof that it's us paying customers who are damaged by the whole situation.

So, to reloaded and the rest of groups out there, keep coding nice no-cd cracks, cos I refuse to take my game dvds all around the world just because companies want me to. I already paid, then I'll do whatever I want with my game.

this resumes it all

I don't understand why they insist on us using discs... Many games end up removing the cd check after a few updates. All the UT games did this after 1 or 2 patches and I have seen other games do the same thing

SNIPERMikeUK 22nd July 2008, 14:23

If you run a Bit-Tech survey on this, you will most likely find that people hate putting the disk in the drive to play games, I personally favour steam, odd thing is people are quite willing to buy original retail software and use a cd-crack to get around this?

deltaworld 22nd July 2008, 19:42

I hate the fact that I have to put the CD or DVD every time I want to play the game. Imagine If I had to put in Microsoft Office CD everytime I wanted to write a letter in Word or put the Adobe Creative Suite everytime I wanted to open Photoshop or any other application out there. Why do games have to be any different. These software applications cost a lot more than games and if people wanted to warez them they would do so, but yet games are the ones that suffer the most yet they are a lot cheaper than a lot of the other software applications out there. I just don't get it.