A lot of people are excited about SNK’s upcoming King Of Fighters XII. I am one of them although I do admit that my enthusiasm for the game has been dampered a little bit by the impending console release in the US on July 7th (the game is scheduled to be released in arcades in Japan in April) and it seems like they have decided to use the VS. format only for the game like SFIV which means that operators have to buy two units, thus increasing the cost of investment on the game (in the comments fubarduck says otherwise). Despite those problems (from my operator point of view), it still looks like a great game so I look forward to playing it either way.
Anyways, there is an interview up on French gaming site Jeuxactu with the producer of KOFXII, Maasaki Kukinko. They talk about HD graphics and the decision to stick with 2D art for this one, how the gameplay compares to other KOF games (it appears that they are trying to make it feel more like KOF98) and more. Hit the link below for the translation.
[Maasaki Kukinko Interview – Jeuxactu] [Discuss on the Forum]
“and it seems like they have decided to use the VS. format only for the game like SFIV which means that operators have to buy two units, thus increasing the cost of investment on the game.”
No, KOF12 uses a single Type X2 board for two players. The image you posted is how they hook up every fighting game in Japanese arcades (single PCB or not), which is to two cabinets. They simply use a JVS Versus Kit to split the signal to both cabinets (a VGA splitter, Audio RCA splitter, and USB cable is basically all that’s needed for JVS hardware like the X2).