A Wholly Unoriginal Idea

[Zeastria]

I don't think it takes much out of their day to design weapons, they likely have an entire room full of potential weapon designs stacked up just from artists doing what they do. I think the issue is modeling them, either because their graphics artists are inexperienced or severely understaffed. I see the huge quality drop from the concept art to the finished model of the recent contest winners and think it may be the former.

People tend underestimate the amount of time it takes to create a 3D model lol,
Making one 3D model can take up to 20-40 hrs ,and it depends on complexity of the model..
Now remember that hours/time = money ..so you see how this can be quite expensive..