(9) 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 goods sold generally at the greater of the contractual rate for contracts with guaranteed minimums, or an effective royalty rate based on the total projected net revenue. 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 goods sold.

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. 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 sales. Any impairments or losses determined before the launch of a product are charged to research and development expense. Impairments or losses determined post-launch are charged to cost of goods sold. We evaluate long-lived royalty-based assets for impairment generally using undiscounted cash flows when impairment indicators exist. 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 months ended December 31, 2011, we did not recognize any losses or impairment charges on unrecognized minimum royalty-based commitments and royalties-based assets. During the nine months ended December 31, 2011, we recognized additional losses of $14 million representing an adjustment to our fiscal 2011 restructuring. During the three months ended December 31, 2010, in connection with our fiscal 2011 restructuring, we recognized losses of $75 million on our previously unrecognized minimum royalty-based commitments and impairment charges of $27 million on our royalty-based assets. During the nine months ended December 31, 2010, we recognized losses of $85 million, inclusive of $75 million related to our fiscal 2011 restructuring, on our previously unrecognized minimum royalty-based commitments and impairment charges of $27 million on our royalty-based assets related to our fiscal 2011 restructuring.

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, 2011		As of March 31, 2011


Other current assets	$	65	$	89
Other assets		99		22
Royalty-related assets	$	164	$	111

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 recognize unpaid royalty amounts owed 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, 2011		As of March 31, 2011


Accrued and other current liabilities	$	163	$	136
Other liabilities		60		61
Royalty-related liabilities	$	223	$	197

As of December 31, 2011, $80 million of restructuring accruals related to the fiscal 2011 restructuring plan is included in royalty-related liabilities in the table above. See Note 8 for details of restructuring and other restructuring plan-related activities and Note 10 for the details of our accrued and other current liabilities.

In addition, as of December 31, 2011, we were committed to pay approximately $896 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 Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.