According to user Liamaj on the Steam forums Rockstar appear to have used a cracked executable from the pirated release of Max Payne 2 for the games re-release on Steam. The .exe file included with the Steam release contains the ASCII logo by cracking group Myth, an old cracking group that were quite well know a couple of years ago. It would appear Rockstar got a little lazy and used this cracked .exe instead of recompiling their executable without copy protection. The logo is much easier to see if you back away from it or just zoom out using by holding the ctrl key and spinning your mouse wheel. A comment on the Steam forums also raises a good point, "Can it be argued that pirated software is vastly superior to the legal alternatives when the developers themselves give this endorsement?"
Hahah. Y'know this happens quite often. Microsoft used some warez groups sound effects in Windows. It just goes to show, the cracked alternative is normally the better option, and in this case, the paying customers get to experience it without knowing about cracked releases.
Ive been saying for years anyone who pirates something usually gets the better deal than a legit consumer, especially with DVD's. Ubisoft also used the No-CD crack to fix Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 for Direct2Drive back in 2008. In all honestly the majority of games I own for PC get cracked anyway simply because I cant be bothered to mess about putting the CD in every time I want to play.
Indeed. All of my legit PC games that require me to insert the disc each time, are cracked instantly. I never wanted to mess with those CD's on my desk. Perhaps CD music was the only good reason in the past, like with Quake 2. And it surprises me that games like Bioshock 2 still need that damn disc in the tray, while it has major restrictions alongside online activation already.. Damn those publishers lately.