Software Development Costs

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Research and Development [Abstract]

Software Development Costs

Software Development

A summary of software development costs, net is as follows:

	2020				2019
(In thousands)	Gross Carrying Amount		Accumulated Amortization		Gross Carrying Amount		Accumulated Amortization
Software to be sold, leased or marketed	$	2,610,476	$	1,788,019	$	2,379,028	$	1,586,134
Software delivered exclusively as a service	385,168		198,276		305,233		158,268
Total	$	2,995,644	$	1,986,295	$	2,684,261	$	1,744,402
Software development costs, net			$	1,009,349			$	939,859

Estimated aggregate amortization expense for each of the next five years is as follows:

(In thousands)
2021	$	276,532
2022	245,911
2023	194,007
2024	147,349
2025	95,431

Information regarding our software development costs is included in the following table:

	For the Years Ended
(In thousands)	2020		2019		2018
Software development costs	$	796,971	$	783,593	$	747,128
Capitalized software development costs	(295,277)		(273,871)		(273,693)
Amortization of capitalized software development costs	247,313		227,414		210,228
Total software development expense	$	749,007	$	737,136	$	683,663