Do you plan on having incentives for hardcore mode and though other than just funsies?
I don't mean to come across as completely negative, but I have spent over 600 hours getting to where I am. Risking a total loss of playtime due to just one trivial death regarding circumstances beyond my control (like ridiculously high explosives damage or enemies spawning from really odd places) just doesn't seem like a worthy investment unless I have a real chance at obtaining anything worthwhile.
Spending resources to work on that while so much remains to be balanced and optimized just seems odd. I mean you guys can obviously do whatever you want, but I would assume the majority of your player base consists of working adults just based on clan mates and friends who have a limited amount of playtime and just can't pour all that down the drain for just a sense of accomplishment.
Regardless of whether or not I choose to play that mode, I hope you can appreciate the appropriate high risk/ high reward scenario involved to keep your players engaged if the beta yields favorable results. Apart from a very small selection of DZ or raid only gear vs. total available items, there are currently no real incentives to engage in higher difficulty activities as it is, other than to just get a handful of more statistically inferior rolls. That too should change and evolve for regular content, but it REALLY needs to shine if players will be faced with permadeath.