The L.A. Times has a bit on the September sales figures reported by the NPD Group. Word is game sales are up and hardware sales are down:

The starting gun for the video game industry's crucial holiday season went off with a bang in September as sales of games perked up 4% after four consecutive months of declines, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group.

But as the industry scored $630.2 million in sales of games sold at retail stores last month, up from $612.1 million a year earlier, sales of consoles tumbled 9% to $349 million from $382.9 million in 2010, as manufacturers cut the cost of devices used to play those games. Nintendo's hand-held 3DS console, for example, saw its price tag fall to $170 from $250 when it launched in March.

The decline in hardware offset the gains in game sales, leading to a 6% overall drop in total sales to $1.16 billion from $1.23 billion in September 2010.