The NPD group offers some information in advance of the release of its July report, revealing digital sales in the U.S. for the second quarter of this year are up 17 percent over the same period last year, reports MCV. They say this is not enough to offset corresponding losses of physical sales. "In the second quarter of this year, sales of content in a digital format have grown 17 percent over Q2 2011," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "While this growth is in stark contrast to the declines in new physical software and hardware sales, the size of digital sales is not quite large enough to offset these declines, leading to an overall drop in consumer spending in Q2 by 16 percent."