The Dark Souls Facebook page has an acknowledgement from BANDAI NAMCO of a startup issue with the just-released PC edition of Dark Souls II (thanks GameInformer). They say they are working on this, and in the meantime, point to this Steam forum thread where they list possible solutions to this and other problems with From Software's action/RPG sequel. Here's word:

We are aware of an issue some Dark Souls II PC players are having with the game upon start-up.

We have identified the issue, and the team is currently working towards a resolution.

We have highlighted a few possible temporary fixes and will keep you posted on our progress on the official Dark Souls II Steam Forums: http://bit.ly/1kduB6S

Thank you for your patience!