Diablo 3 has sold over 14 million copies across all versions

Action role-playing game Diablo 3 has sold over 14 million copies, Blizzard Entertainment has announced.

That's across all versions: PC, which launched in May 2012, and PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which launched in September 2013.

"We're pleased with the response to the game's launch on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360," said Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime in an investor call last night.

"Lifetime sell-through of the game across all platforms has reached over 14 million copies, and reviews have been very positive about how the game plays on console."

Blizzard reckons the console version benefited from the decision to ditch the PC version's controversial auction house, and it was this positive reaction that contributed to Blizzard's plan to remove the auction house from the PC version in March 2014.

"Much of the praise has been centred on changes we made to the loot system and our decision to keep the auction house off of the console platform," Morhaime said.

"Players and critics alike have noted that these changes have resulted in a more fun and satisfying game experience. That reaction factored in our decision to remove the auction houses from the PC version of Diablo 3 effective next March, which players have also responded very positively to."

Next for Diablo 3 is the Reaper of Souls expansion, due out on PC and PlayStation 4 in 2014. More on this will be revealed at BlizzCon this weekend.

Speaking of BlizzCon, there Blizzard will re-unveil its free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm, formerly Blizzard All-Stars.

"We've done an extensive internal test on Heroes over the past several months, and as the game has evolved, we felt it was appropriate to change the name to something more fitting of the gameplay experience," Morhaime said.

Meanwhile, Blizzard announced that massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft had shed 100,000 subscribers over the last three months. It now has around 7.6 million subscribers.

While subscriber numbers have reduced steadily over recent years, World of Warcraft remains the world's most popular subscription MMO nine years into its life, and Blizzard said it was investing more resources into its ongoing development than ever before.

"Player response to the content has been good, and we saw increased engagement that has contributed to maintaining relatively stable subscribership quarter-over-quarter," Morhaime said.

"We'll continue to invest heavily in World of Warcraft to deliver frequent, high-quality content to our players."

He added: "But in terms of the content and developing, we have more resources focused on developing content for World of Warcraft than ever before. So we expect to continue having a long and happy life."