Why Is Pokemon Refusing To Give Us A New Eeveelution?

thegamer.com:

I have no idea what The Pokemon Company thinks of Eevee. With most Pokemon, you know what the deal is. Pikachu and Charizard are the moneymakers. Psyduck is marketable but functionally useless. Dunsparce is nothing. And so on. Eevee though is much harder to pin down, and new Scarlet & Violet leaks only make this worse.

Eevee is an incredibly popular Pokemon, officially made a Gen 1 starter in 2019 via Let’s Go Eevee, and an ever-present. Eevee and its Eeveelutions appear in Sword & Shield, New Pokemon Snap, and Legends: Arceus, while the Eeveelutions continue to eke into Unite. However, a recent leak suggests no new Eeveelution is present in Scarlet & Violet, which is baffling for a number of reasons.

Related: What Type Might Pokemon's Next Eeveelution Be? An Investigation

First off, Eevee’s massive popularity means a new Eeveelution turns S&V from a ‘maybe’ into a ‘day one’ for a lot of players. I don’t think games companies should make their creative decisions entirely around marketing hype, but the simple fact is Eevee would sell copies. We also have eight types represented now (nine if you count Eevee’s normal), but that leaves nine or ten still waiting for an Eeveelution. Umbreon and Sylveon ushered in new types, while Espeon was a reboot for Psychic after the super effective errors of Gen 1, but both Glaceon and Leafeon introduced Eeveelutions for types that already existed. Even if we’re not getting a new type, there are plenty of others the game could explore. Instead we get nothing.

This is the longest we have gone without an Eeveelution. Following the Gen 2, Gen 4, Gen 6 cadence, we should have had one in Sword & Shield. If the leaks are to be believed, a new Eeveelution will arrive at least two generations