Last month, rumors spread that the DS Lite might be being phased out. Today, Nintendo announced that the handheld will continue to be offered on the US market at a discounted price of $99.99. The $30 price drop is effective as of June 5, the day before the pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo press conferences get under way.

　　Six best-selling Mario games are getting new red packaging.

　　"This new price point will introduce Nintendo DS Lite to even more consumers," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime of the drop.

　　The news comes as Nintendo announces new sales milestones in the United States. To date, the DS family of systems has sold more than 48.9 million units domestically, making it--according to Nintendo--the best-selling system in US history. The Kyoto, Japan-based game giant also took the opportunity to announce new American sales figures for its top six DS Mario games, as of the end of April 2011:

　　New Super Mario Bros.: over 9.25 million units

　　Mario Kart DS: over 7.40 million units

　　Super Mario 64 DS: over 4.34 million units

　　Mario Party DS: over 3.27 million units

　　Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: over 1.98 million units

　　Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!: over 1.01 million units

　　To commemorate the games' success, Nintendo is changing the box color of the aforementioned sextuple of titles to a bright red. The company also announced that some 31 Mario games have bested 1 million units of sales since 1995, with worldwide unit sales of the Super Mario series topping 262 million.