As some have pointed out, the ships are missing an important detail, indication of thrust / direction, here’s an update.
At some point I moved / adjusted the sun a bit, so the overall colour is a little different, but I prefer this one just the same. 
If the ships have reactionless engines that can run up to light-speed at several G worth of acceleration, and if their directional thrusters can perform at least one g of acceleration, there’s no reason why that statement would be true.
They’d easily be able to match the planet’s rotation speed above the atmosphere and then lower themselves down into it at walking speed… (Although a few hundred miles an hour would be just fine too.) You don’t burst into flames from atmospheric compression when you walk to the local shops, and down near sea-level is the thickest and most-dangerous part of the atmosphere for that sort of thing!. 
Edit Just saw the above post. HOLY CATS those things are kicking out a lot of engine exhaust for an atmospheric flight! Clean-burning too 
It’s not even Sunday! Way to go, Hutchings! 
Judging from the boxy nature of the larger ships, I’d speculate a barge, probably S in origin, possibly a carrier. Those smaller craft look corvette sized.
Well, those are some assumptions on the level of warp drives.
Let’s not have this game turned into pure fiction.
Which I’m pretty sure that ships in Infinity are supposed to have.
Speak for yourself.
Naiba’s numbers are probably very conservative. I assume accelerations of millions of g’s, with a top speed of 50c.
The new image suggests to me that the ships are flying like missiles at a couple Mach - using significant rear thrust to push through the atmosphere at high speed with a slight up angle, relying on body lift to stay aloft. That’s because there are no visible lift thrusters, yet the rear thrusters are bright. Perhaps the ships are accelerating to leave the planet.
If you want to suggest ships that are flying along gracefully at a fixed altitude and speed, I’d reduce or eliminate the visible rear thrusters and put in obvious lift thrusters. They’re the ones that are keeping the spaceships from falling into the ocean.
Alternately, we could stop depicting rocket motors for spaceships that don’t consume fuel, are larger than an aircraft carrier and move at multiples of c.
I’m not entirely certain about what you mean here, but for a ship to match the rotation of a planet while being within its atmosphere, the planet would have to be rotating at ridiculous speeds. I’m interpreting your comment as if a ship inserts itself into a bit of a synchronous orbit above the atmosphere. Realistically, injecting yourself into a synchronous orbit will result in you most likely being too far away for as graceful a landing as you suggest.
For a society capable of what the civilizations in Infinity seem to be, it wouldn’t be that hard to maintain a geosynchronous orbit at low- or suborbital altitudes. Without fuel constraints, there’s nothing stopping a ship from simply hovering.
Alright then, I understand what he means by it now. But at that point, why should we be discussing the way large ships held together during high speed atmospheric re-entry, if we can assume that they are technologically advanced enough to not worry about the heat?
It was never my intention to build a clear back story or explanation into the scene. At first I positioned the fleet in “low earth orbit,” but decided on a different visual mood.
The Main Thruster intensity was set based on visibility at a distance. But I can assure you, the lift thrusters are also firing
For now, I’ll go with your explanation. “They’re preparing to leave the planet’s atmosphere.” It makes the most sense to me, and the ships are actually pointed upward by about 5 - 10 degrees in the scene… and could put the other shots into context… other shots… context… yes, that will work well.
That’s all from me until the weekend. Your comments have me thinking…
I can’t like this enough!
I will just add that Dan is using a Med/Large hauler in this scene that is really not set up for atmospheric ascent/entry etc, it’s just the art asset he had available to him. It wasn’t until we started making the KS video that we realized we might have to do something specific with additional lift thrusters to make things more immersive. Bottom side RCS thrusters alone just won’t cut it visually, depending on ship design. A Med/Large hauler is probably not something you’d want to enter an atmo with anyways
I was wondering if the long-standing mandate of Capitals Don’t Land was being discarded.
Start from that and work out. It will help avoid confusion over seeing stuff in early pieces that conflicts with the way the game will work. Gene’s observation about having a large hauler in the atmosphere is an example of that. If that’s not a visual we’ll see in game, it’s probably not a good idea to show it to us in teasers.
A suggestion would be to consider what Infinity:Battlescape will allow, and stick to those types of scenes. I realize that these screenshots are just courtesy side jobs to keep us amused, but you are the butterfly flapping its wings and we are the hurricane.
Well, we’re more like a summer shower right now, but in time…
By considering an Infinity:Battlescape style scenario, you can do a comic book style sequence of images. Then again, that might let too much of the cat out of the bag. Perhaps a sequence that is at least compatible with Infinity:Battlescape.
Give him a break @JB47394, they are obviously going with, “Let’s show some pretty pictures.” philosophy ATM.
Nice to know that those little black dots are not little marks on my monitor, as I first thought. 
Personally I would love to see even the 5km ships enter atmosphere. Isn’t there some “structural integrity field” that will hold the ship together?
We do have a technology document written up, but we have not all signed off/agreed on it yet, and our KS video will not represent any final stance on the technology of the Infinity universe. It’s likely the technology development will carry over into alpha/beta due to play testing and other feedback having an impact on what is in the document. It’s also possible that for Battlescape we will not concentrate on fleshing out all the technology, that will be more important for the MMO. Our initial offering pertaining to gameplay/technology/lore on the Battlescape site will likely be a rather loose/sparse interpretation of our initial ideas, nothing will be written in stone.
That’s still being debated internally. We haven’t fully agreed yet on which size/technology limitations should affect whether or not a ship can handle entry into different types of atmosphere. For example even a small, nimble fighter might not be able to handle the incredible pressures and volatile winds of mid to low atmosphere of a gas giant.
I always liked the idea of big ships landing vertically…
Yeah, vertical capships would be a pretty nice change from the usual SF fare, particularly if they aren’t meant to regularly operate in atmosphere. It would be a change that would make them more distinctive but still make sense - more than boat-like starships, actually. Small nimble ships like fighters could still be horizontal, though. Surface-to-space big haulers could operate either way, depending on what looks best.
(The enemy gate is up)
That said, it would be a big change art-wise, so it’s probably too late for it anyway.