The L.A. Times Website has details from the April sales estimates published by the market researchers at the NPD Group, showing a significant downturn compared April 2011. This shows game sales at U.S. retailers taking in $292.1 million last month, a 42% drop from $503.2 million the previous year, while sales of hardware peripherals held steady. As always some of this decline is the shift from retail packaged goods to digital, as they note "sales of used games, digital game downloads and online game subscriptions contributed an additional $370 million." NPD analysts also chalk this up to there being less new product for consumers to consume this year. "Simply stated, there were notably fewer" new game releases, says NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "I think it's as simple as that, because when we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever."