Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Morhaime revealed Diablo III beta is scheduled to start within the third quarter of 2011, and the development team is working hard to launch the game this year.

After this announcement, the Diablo III pre-orders are gaining momentum.

It’s a game highly acclaimed, and eagerly awaited by RPG players for a decade. Over the past few years, fans from all around the world have shown how passionate they are about Blizzard games. Last year, 25,000 BlizzCon tickets sold out for astonishing high prices ($150) in less than 30 seconds. With a game as hot as Diablo III, local stores will run out of copies quickly on launch date. Traditionally, fans pre-order games in advance to reserve a copy. It also saves the experience of long lines of people camping the store outside for hours, and the frustration when copies are sold out.

Diablo III pre-orders are currently priced: $59.99 at Amazon and Gamestop. Amazon is offering free shipping with certain restrictions. Gamestop, in contrast, doesn’t offer free shipping, nor in-store pick-up. Both companies, however, offer a lower price guarantee: “Pre-order any product and if the price drops before the release date, you will be charged the lower price. Online orders are not billed until your shipment is processed, so pre-order today.”

Another big seller in the pre-orders field will certainly be the Diablo III Collector’s Edition. To date, Blizzard Entertainment hasn’t yet announced the content of Diablo III Collector’s Edition. Blizzard usually reveals its content three or four months prior to their internal release date schedule. We’ll keep you updated when information becomes available.