Play Max Payne 3 without Social Club and/or the Rockstar Launcher

We paid for the game and we shouldn't need any extra software to play it.

Introduction

NOTE: You will lose access to online multiplayer by doing this.

If you're reading this guide odds are you want to be able to run Max Payne 3 without the Rockstar Games Launcher or Social Club either because you're using Linux, a 32bit version of Windows or simply because you don't want to deal with any of Rockstar's bullshіt.
For that, we're going to downgrade our game to the last version before the RSGL update.

The Actual Guide

Moving on to what we actually want, we need to download the binaries for the old version of Max Payne 3 from HERE:
https://sharemods.com/24el603ngu91/MaxPayne3_Remove_Social_Club_v2.7z.html

NOTE: Due to v3 triggering anti-virus detections and causing some scare I have reverted the link back to the older v2, which shouldn't trigger any detections[www.virustotal.com], however, v2 causes the game to crash whenever you start New Game+.
If for some reason you want v3, you may check the Wayback Machine[web.archive.org]
Most of the detections[www.virustotal.com] for v3 are either from no-name anti-viruses or caused by AI triggers (which aren't perfect)

After you're done downloading, extract the files, you should see a new folder in the location where you extracted the files, copy everything inside it.

Now we need to browse to our Max Payne 3 install directory. A easy way to find it is right click Max Payne 3 in your library and then click Manage > Browse local files. Now double-click the Max Payne 3 folder.

Windows Users

Now you have to copy the files you have extracted to the Max Payne 3 folder, replace everything when prompted to.
Then you right click install.bat and run it as administrator. If everything went right, you should now be able to launch the game without installing Social Club and the Rockstar Launcher.

Linux Users

Copy all the files extracted to the Max Payne 3 folder and replace everything when asked.
Now you want to open a terminal window in the Max Payne 3 folder, you want to run install.sh by entering:

chmod +x ./install.sh && ./install.sh

You probably want to delete your current proton prefix for app id 204100 if you already had installed Social Club and the Rockstar Games Launcher.
Now you should be able to launche the game if everything is right.

Wrapping up

If the game worked without any issues then congratulations, you're now running Max Payne 3 without any of Rockstar's trash in your computer.
If you have any problems then please feel free to ask whatever you have to ask in the comments section, I will try to aid you if I'm able to.

[Kobe-Wan Kenobi]

the catalina stir dungus bungus

[MΛGПΣ₸Λ]

Well said Mel. Wait til many gaming companies decide to remove your copy of the games you bought just like those who once had The crew. Now nobody can play it no more even if they have the disc lmao. Eff ubisoft

[MΛGПΣ₸Λ]

If this didn't work for you then after doing this go to gamecopy world, then get max payne 3 no launcher version(doesn't matter if it's not your game version it will work) put the exe and the commandline.txt in game folder then it works. But Thank you OP for helping me with my copy of Max payne 3. I have one with fun mods then the Steam one but one day it wouldn't go thru the splash screen so I suspect windows defender deleted some of my M.P. 3 game files.

[󠀡󠀡]

So many corporate slaves in the comments. You are not virtuous for adhering to the laws of men.

[skau]

1. v2 "breaks" NG+ but you can still choose chapters from the main menu, so you can simply start from chapter 1 as a workaround
2. RGSC saves cannot be used in either version because they are encrypted
3. No clue about your issue of not being able to save, don't think I have seen that before.

[Top Dollar]

And the game can't save progress either, throwing up the message "An error occurred trying to save "Max Payne 3 Back Up" saves"

This makes the game unplayable.

[Top Dollar]

I installed the v3 because v2 breaks NG+.
Installation worked and the game boots up fine now, but all my save progress is gone. Does v3 cause the game to use an old save location, or does it change the account data the game is tied to?

[Top Dollar]

"however, v2 causes the game to crash whenever you start New Game+."

So...this breaks the game, then.

[Lirocruz]

I’m gonna have to word this out better but I’ll try to make sense:

So, I want to transfer my data from my rockstar social club and transfer it to the EMU save. Is there a way to do it? Because I want to unlock the arcade skins. When I finished the game in medium (required to unlock the skins) I didn’t get jack when I used the remove social club file. I tinker around but no such luck.

If there’s no way, I’d understand but I appreciate your help.

[troy_en]

Works!! Can you do other games like RDR2/1 or the GTA games?