(8) 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.

During fiscal years 2018 and 2016, we did not recognize any material losses or impairment charges on royalty-based assets or royalty-based commitments. During fiscal year 2017, we determined that the carrying value of certain of our royalty-based assets and certain previously unrecognized minimum royalty-based commitments were not recoverable. We recognized impairment charges of $23 million on the assets and a loss of $19 million on the commitments. Of the total $42 million loss, $10 million was included in cost of service revenue and $32 million was included in research and development expenses in our Consolidated Statements 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 March 31,
	2018		2017
Other current assets	$	68	$	79
Other assets	34		39
Royalty-related assets	$	102	$	118

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 March 31,
	2018		2017
Accrued royalties	$	171	$	165
Other liabilities	74		97
Royalty-related liabilities	$	245	$	262

As of March 31, 2018, we were committed to pay approximately $899 million to content licensors, independent software developers, and co-publishing and/or distribution affiliates, but performance remained with the counterparty (i.e., delivery of the product or content or other factors) and such commitments were therefore not recorded in our Consolidated Financial Statements. See Note 12 for further information on our developer and licensor commitments.