Intangible Assets, Net

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Intangible Assets, Net

Intangible Assets, Net

11.       Intangible Assets, Net

Intangible assets, net consist of the following (amounts in millions):

		At December 31, 2012
		Estimated	Gross
		useful	carrying		Accumulated		Impairment		Net carrying
		lives	amount		amortization		charge		amount
Acquired definite-lived intangible assets:
	License agreements and other	3 - 10 years	$	98	$	(88)	$	---	$	10
	Internally developed franchises	11 - 12 years		309		(251)		---		58
Acquired indefinite-lived intangible assets:
	Activision trademark	Indefinite		386		---		---		386
	Acquired trade names	Indefinite		47		---		---		47
Total			$	840	$	(339)	$	---	$	501
		At December 31, 2011
		Estimated	Gross
		useful	carrying		Accumulated		Impairment		Net carrying
		lives	amount		amortization		charge		amount
Acquired definite-lived intangible assets:
	License agreements and other	3 - 10 years	$	88	$	(82)	$	---	$	6
	Game engines	2 - 5 years		32		(32)		---		---
	Internally developed franchises	11 - 12 years		309		(227)		---		82
	Distribution agreements	4 years		18		(18)		---		---
Acquired indefinite-lived intangible assets:
	Activision trademark	Indefinite		386		---		---		386
	Acquired trade names	Indefinite		47		---		---		47
Total			$	880	$	(359)	$	---	$	521

Amortization expense of intangible assets was $30 million, $72million, and $130 million for the years ended December 31,2012, 2011, and 2010, respectively.

The gross carrying amount as of December 31, 2011 in the tables above reflect a new cost basis for license agreements, game engines and internally developed franchises due to impairment charges for the year ended December 31, 2010. The new cost basis includes the original gross carrying amount, less accumulated amortization and impairment charges on the intangible assets as of December 31, 2011.

At December 31, 2012, future amortization of definite-lived intangible assets is estimated as follows (amounts in millions):

2013	$	24
2014		20
2015		10
2016		6
2017		4
Thereafter		4
Total	$	68

We did not record any impairment charges against our intangible assets for the year ended December 31, 2012 and 2011.

In 2010, we considered the continued economic downturn within our industry and the change in the buying habits of casual consumers while planning for 2011 during the fourth quarter of 2010. This resulted in a significant revision of our outlook for retail sales of software and a strategy change to, among other things, focus on fewer title releases in the casual genre and discontinue the development of music-based titles. As we considered this change in strategy to be an indicator of a potential impairment of our intangible assets, we updated our future projected revenue streams for certain franchises in the casual games and music genres. We performed recoverability tests and, where applicable, measured the impairment of the related intangible assets in accordance with ASC Subtopic 360-10. This resulted in impairment charges of $67 million, $9 million and $250 million to license agreements, game engines and internally developed franchises intangible assets, respectively, recorded within our Activision segment for the year ended December 31, 2010.