I think the difficulty is fine you just need patience and the willingness to learn from mistakes.

One way of getting new players into the game would be improving the tutorial level/area to help ease them into things. I wouldn't be surprised if Dark Souls 2 had a more fleshed out tutorial to help prepare new players.

Again, I think the emphasis on online play is the larger deterrent against separate difficulty modes and the ability to pause. I do think that the difficulty of the series has been extremely exaggerated (partly due to critic reviews and marketing), because honestly, if you're patient and take the time to learn the locations and enemies, you'll rarely die (excluding the occasional invasion).

What would be the point in that? Getting souls is extremely easy...Many people walk around with online mode on with a shit ton of souls with no worries because you can easily get it back so easily. 

and you can have the best stats and armor but that wouldn't help much at all if you don't understand the game..and in that case you might as well play on hard.  Easy mode just isn't viable in dark souls for many reasons. 

1. Many people would take the easy way without even trying and not having the chance to experience the true dark souls.

2.Its a really really short game if you do not  fail alot.

3. Ruins the marketing of the game...Prepare to die...Unless if you chose easy mode

4.  Would f up Online

5.cheapens experience

6. Without difficulty and replaying there isn't much else to the game.

The only easy mode I can think that would work is having tips on the side of your screen telling you how to beat the boss,what to do, where to go. Pretty much hand holding you like most games these days...Might as well just read a Guide. 

1. That's their choice.

2. Then they should make it longer.

3. Market it differently.

4. Not necessarily, just separate by difficulty level.

5. Again, people should be able to decide this for themselves.

6. Again, the devs should add more then, instead of relying on difficulty to replace content.

I think you misunderstand my suggestion. It's not an easy mode, but only one that lessens the frustration caused by death which in theory would get players back into the game quicker (and therefore learn more efficiently). No other changes to the formula. And if it screws up online play that much, there's no reason why it can't be an offline-only mode - like a sort of training ground for the uninitiated where the trade-off is solitude. If they want to play online, the player could start a new game in the "proper" mode where the only thing that bleeds over is pure player experience.

^ The major frustration is having to kill the enimes over...If they got rid of that how would they learn?

1.  Horrible choice for anyone that just doesn't want to sight see the game...Many people who are fans now wouldn't be if they played an easy mode. 

2. There is alot of content. 29 bosses and many areas to explore.  Its just easy to get by if you know what your doing or had an easy mode.

3. And how would they do that. 

5.  refer to 1. 

6.  refer to 2

Have you even played or beaten Dark souls?

Regardless they aren't making it on easy mode and for great reasons.

Dark Souls/Demon's Souls can both be played in offline mode...

If you need the game to be easier then use what the developers included (summonable players/npc's) and if thats not enough use guides/videos online.

It appears to me that Namco is trying to woo an audience that may lose interest once research becomes involved. Or at least trying to hook 'em before cooking 'em.

Loved Dark Souls, I'll be all over the sequel as soon as it comes out

As for what many people in this thread are suggesting, adding some form of easy difficulty mode.....normally I would agree with you guys, that adding these kinds of options doesn't take away anything from the game. With Dark Souls however, I don't think they would ever do it, and they shouldn't. The reason being that the difficulty/challenge is the very core of the game. Without it, the game would lose it's identity. If you don't like Dark Souls' level of difficulty, then the game just isn't for you.

I don't know. The game already sells well, will marketing it like a AAA title help all that much? serious question btw.