If attendees of the DICE summit want to learn how to create characters that last, they should look no further than Mickey Mouse, says Namco Bandai's Roger Hector.
The secret to character longevity is to steadily increase a character's equity, a concept the industry veteran learned during his tenure at Disney. "All characters have equity," he explained. "Equity is something that builds up with time through the association of that character with high-quality entertainment."
The more high-quality entertainment the character appears in, the more popular they become and the more equity they have. Mickey Mouse, one of the longest-enduring and most recognizable characters in the world, is an excellent example of character equity, said Hector.
