Hi Ryan,
Happy to assist!
I tried publishing some basic courses that didn't have any audio or video in the beginning of the course and I can confirm that they launched normally without a play button at the start. Could you check to see if you have added background audio to your course? Having background audio will also cause the play button to appear, even if no visible audio or video files are present in the first slide.
You can also check the Media Library to spot any media files that could be causing the play button to appear.
If your course is confirmed to not have media files on the very first slide, would you be willing to share a copy of your project file here or in private by opening a support case so we can take a closer look at what's happening? We'll delete it when we're done testing!