(7) ROYALTIES AND LICENSES

Our royalty expenses consist of payments to (1) content licensors, (2) independent software developers, and (3) co-publishing and distribution affiliates. License royalties consist of payments made to celebrities, professional sports organizations, movie studios and other organizations for our use of their trademarks, copyrights, personal publicity rights, content and/or other intellectual property. Royalty payments to independent software developers are payments for the development of intellectual property related to our games. Co-publishing and distribution royalties are payments made to third parties for the delivery of products.

Royalty-based obligations with content licensors and distribution affiliates are either paid in advance and capitalized as prepaid royalties or are accrued as incurred and subsequently paid. These royalty-based obligations are generally expensed to cost of revenue at the greater of the contractual rate or an effective royalty rate based on the total projected net revenue for contracts with guaranteed minimums. Prepayments made to thinly capitalized independent software developers and co-publishing affiliates are generally made in connection with the development of a particular product, and therefore, we are generally subject to development risk prior to the release of the product. Accordingly, payments that are due prior to completion of a product are generally expensed to research and development over the development period as the services are incurred. Payments due after completion of the product (primarily royalty-based in nature) are generally expensed as cost of revenue.

Our contracts with some licensors include minimum guaranteed royalty payments, which are initially recorded as an asset and as a liability at the contractual amount when no performance remains with the licensor. When performance remains with the licensor, we record guarantee payments as an asset when actually paid and as a liability when incurred, rather than recording the asset and liability upon execution of the contract. Prepaid royalties are classified as current assets to the extent that such amounts will be recognized in our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations within the next 12 months. Royalty liabilities are classified as current liabilities to the extent such royalty payments are contractually due within the next 12 months.

Each quarter, we also evaluate the expected future realization of our royalty-based assets, as well as any unrecognized minimum commitments not yet paid to determine amounts we deem unlikely to be realized through product and service sales. Any impairments or losses determined before the launch of a product are generally charged to research and development expense. Impairments or losses determined post-launch are charged to cost of revenue. We evaluate long-lived royalty-based assets for impairment using undiscounted cash flows when impairment indicators exist. If impairment exists, then the assets are written down to fair value. Unrecognized minimum royalty-based commitments are accounted for as executory contracts, and therefore, any losses on these commitments are recognized when the underlying intellectual property is abandoned (i.e., cease use) or the contractual rights to use the intellectual property are terminated.

During the three and nine months ended December 31, 2015, we did not recognize any losses or impairment charges on royalty-based commitments. During the three months ended December 31, 2014, we did not recognize any losses or impairment charges on royalty-based commitments. During the nine months ended December 31, 2014, we recognized a loss of $122 million on a previously unrecognized licensed intellectual property commitment. The $122 million loss relates to the termination of certain rights we previously had to use a licensor’s intellectual property. In addition, because the loss will be paid in installments through March 2022, our accrued loss was computed using the effective interest method. We currently estimate recognizing in future periods through March 2022, approximately $24 million for the accretion of interest expense related to this obligation. This interest expense will be included in cost of revenue in our Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations.

The current and long-term portions of prepaid royalties and minimum guaranteed royalty-related assets, included in other current assets and other assets, consisted of (in millions):



	As of December 31, 2015		As of March 31, 2015
Other current assets	$	37	$	70
Other assets	47		59
Royalty-related assets	$	84	$	129

At any given time, depending on the timing of our payments to our co-publishing and/or distribution affiliates, content licensors, and/or independent software developers, we classify any recognized unpaid royalty amounts due to these parties as accrued liabilities. The current and long-term portions of accrued royalties, included in accrued and other current liabilities and other liabilities, consisted of (in millions):



	As of December 31, 2015		As of March 31, 2015
Accrued royalties	$	216	$	119
Other liabilities	123		131
Royalty-related liabilities	$	339	$	250

As of December 31, 2015, we were committed to pay approximately $1,321 million to content licensors, independent software developers, and co-publishing and/or distribution affiliates, but because performance remained with the counterparty (i.e., delivery of the product or content or other factors), such commitments were not recorded in our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. See Note 11 for further information on our developer and licensor commitments.