Gamemaker.
Inventor. Operator.
40 years at the frontier of
interactive technology.
Co-created one of the first persistent online worlds where your stuff stayed there even when you logged off. Pioneered digital currency for virtual goods a decade before Bitcoin. Reinvented the casino floor from the hardware up: first ergonomic slot machine now a global standard, 3space audio with Bose, community multiplayer slots, and one of the first social free-to-play casinos in what is now a $7B industry. 260 patents granted, 410 filed. $1.5B exit. Co-founded Titanfall: Assault with longtime collaborator Vince Zampella. Currently Founder of What's Next Digital, an operator and investment firm, Vice Chairman of global gaming manufacturer Aruze Global Gaming, and invested and partnered in several AI and gaming startups. And you can find him as a secret playable character in NBA Jam. Still works.
Currently operating four companies, one studio, and a couple of advisory seats.
Hover to inspect. Each card is its own world, founders, operators, and one stealth play you'll hear about soon enough.
Forty years shipped. Pick a chapter to load.
Each tile is a real moment, sometimes a product, sometimes a patent, sometimes the quiet thing that changed an industry years later. Click anything to open.
What others have written about the work.
Six signals from the noise. Click any line to open the full piece.
- [01]Titanfall Assault: Nominated for Game of the YearMobile Game Awards recognized Particle City's action strategy take on the Titanfall universe.↗
- [02]Digital currencies, a decade before BitcoinSegasoft's Transactor let limited-edition digital objects exist outside the game. In 1997.↗
- [03]Innovator with over 5,000 patent citationsLarry's research profile, 260 granted patents and 410 filed, cited across the gaming and interactive systems space.↗
- [04]Creator of the first community slot gamesHow WMS's player-focused approach reinvented the casino floor, and the player on it.↗
- [05]WMS acquired by Scientific Games for $1.5BThe decade-long rebuild closed with a $1.5 billion acquisition.↗
- [06]410 patents filed. 260 granted. 1,200 competitor applications rejected.Independent analysis of Larry Pacey's full patent portfolio. The numbers are bigger than most people know.↗
Off the clock, a connoisseur of well-crafted things.
"My father accidentally lit a spark. I have spent my career making sure others feel it too."
Someone who learned early that the real job is assembling the right team, painting a picture of what is possible, and then making sure nothing gets in their way. The other part of the superpower is seeing without building. Seeing the product before it exists, the challenges across people, process, and market before they surface, and the path through before anyone else has drawn the map. Give the team the platform and tools they need, make them genuinely excited about what they are building, and trust them to get there. Still chasing that moment when a team realizes they are making something that should not exist yet.
Off the clock the obsession with craft does not stop. Everything is a study in design. How a pair of jeans is constructed, the materials in a watch, the aerodynamic logic of a car. Quality over expense, always. Travels with intention too. Japan, Italy, southern France, Vietnam. History, architecture, food, people. One region a year tends to coincide with a Formula 1 race. Lives between Los Angeles, Boca Raton, and New York.
*All listed organizations are registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Donations may be tax deductible.
Things worth your attention.
A rolling reading list. Books, articles, talks, podcasts, whatever earned a spot on the shelf this season.
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