Dark Souls 2 to implement a difficulty setting option?

Dark Souls, and by the same extent, Demon's Souls, is known and mostly loved for its tough difficulty. While they're certainly not the hardest games ever made, for the uninitiated, they can be quite daunting.

Ever since the announcement of Dark Souls 2, there have been some speculation whether From Software would be making the game a bit more accessible to a broader audience, namely by scaling down the difficulty. However, From stated that wouldn't be the case.

During the latest Beta test which happened this weekend, the servers changed up the difficulty setting about 2/3 of the way in. The message peculiarly stated this.

The "High Difficulty Mode" will be performed from now. This is to test the difficulty balance. This test will be used for the difficulty setting verification later. Thank you for your cooperation.

While it doesn't outright say the game will have the option to pick a difficulty setting, the line This test will be used for the difficulty setting verification later, definitely hints at the possibility of being able to choose a difficulty setting in the real game.

Would a difficulty setting option upset the hardcore fans, or is it a good idea to appeal to a larger audience?