A London immersive technology and experience studio, founded in 2016 and based at Somerset House, that makes augmented reality, virtual reality and immersive shows with partners such as the BBC, Sky and the Natural History Museum.
Factory 42 is an immersive content studio that combines people from film, television, games and performance with technical experts. It makes premium experiences in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR, where digital images appear over the real world through a phone) and other immersive formats. It also has a children's division, 42 Kids, which creates immersive educational content for different ages and school subjects. Its projects tend to mix storytelling with new technology so that audiences take part rather than only watch.
The studio was founded in 2016 by John Cassy, who is its chief executive and previously worked at the Cambridge Evening News, the Guardian and Sky. Its stated mission is to create what it calls "Impact Entertainment": storytelling and technology combined into experiences that are emotionally engaging, interactive and socially impactful. Projects have included Hold the World with David Attenborough, a VR experience about the Natural History Museum's collections, and The Green Planet AR Experience with the BBC, in which visitors at Piccadilly Circus took a self-guided tour with a holographic Sir David Attenborough.
Factory 42 is based at Somerset House in central London. Its partners include the BBC, Sky, Meta, Google, EE, the Natural History Museum and the Tate. The studio made Painting the Future, a VR project with the Royal Academy that won Best VR Experience at the Broadcast Digital Awards, and an immersive version of English National Ballet's Giselle, choreographed by Akram Khan. It worked with the Almeida Theatre on Lost Origin, an immersive show at Hoxton Docks in 2021 in which groups of six solved a mystery on the dark web.
The team is described as a mix of video game designers, engineers, artists, visual effects creators, animators, researchers and producers. That mix is a form of culture in itself: people from very different backgrounds working on the same project. The studio's 42 Kids work includes AR apps made with the Natural History Museum (My Dino Mission AR) and the Science Museum Group (My Robot Mission AR), as well as apps with Sky and the Almeida Theatre that were free for children at home and funded by UK Research and Innovation. Those are projects the company lists on its own page.
Studios like this employ producers, creative directors, writers, game and AR developers, 3D artists, animators, researchers and educators for the children's work. Because the work links to museums and broadcasters, it can suit people interested in science, history or storytelling as well as technology. The company's website is the place to see current projects and roles.
Website: factory42.com
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