At start up, the game gets to the Skyrim dragon logo and crashes. Every time, at the same spot. No error messages, it just crashes.

Would be nice to be able to play. What could possibly be the issue?

Any insight would be great.

Tons of reasons. With more info perhaps we could better assist

I installed via Steam. The game detected my system and put the settings at Very High. The Bethesda Logo plays, the shiny dragon shows up, some fog rolls in and it crashes.

I don't know what else to really say about it.

I had the same issue and managed to fix it by going into my nvidia control panel and changing my Anti-Aliasing mode *and* Anti-aliasing Setting (right below it) to Application-controlled. Previously, I had the mode on Enhance and the setting on 32.

I had to put my sound to lowest CD quality setting in playback devices>Speakers>properties>advanced before it would stop with the CTD