@KBlack
Your argument makes sense, but I think you may be looking at this from the perspective of a 90s arcade goer. Back then, maybe people mostly went to arcades to play the latest games they couldn't play elsewhere, but I don't know how true that is for modern Japanese arcades.
If you look at the most-played arcade games from Arcadia's rankings, almost half of them are available on consoles. Tekken 6, Blazblue CS, and 2002UM continue to do great despite having console versions out. 2002UM even had a console version out FIRST, and it went on to become the most-played KOF game of the last five years. I just don't think Japanese arcade owners are
that worried about console versions anymore, since a good game is usually enough to attract players.
And on the flip side, if the game was a flop, having exclusive access to it wouldn't make it much more profitable. If XII had been released five years after the arcade version game out, do you really think arcades would have made more money off it?
If SNKP really had talked with everyone who bought the arcade version about an exclusivity deal, I'm certain we'd have heard about it by now. I believe the AI players were on good terms with the former owner of AI, and with the owner of Alex's Arcade. Maybe we should be hitting them up for info on the console version?
or arcade version publisher Konami
That would make sense. I'd forgotten Konami was the publisher.