I'm actually pretty confident about the prospects of KOF2K1 being released for the Japanese home cart market. When SNK was having their financial problems they STILL released 2K to home cart. Now that they're apparently doing a little better, I don't see why they wouldn't produce a run for 2K1 in the same fashion. I mean, they even went back and made another run of Slug 3 home carts. If they're willing to do that, I see no reason why they wouldn't make a home cart for their most anticipated game worldwide.
As for an english release, my feeling on the matter is that as long as the Japanese cart plays in english (and there's no reason to think it won't), I'll be a happy camper and plunk down my 260-300 US dollars for it. Of course, given the option I prefer an english release (looks more uniform with the rest of my collection), but ultimately the game's the thing and I'll take it however I can get it.
What I'm curious about is why they never ported 2K to the DC. I own the home cart for 2K so its not a big deal to me, but it seems odd to me that they wouldn't want to provide a version to fans that don't have a Neo Geo system. There's a lot of money, potentially, to be made there. Were they waiting to port it to PS2 instead, and were waiting for Sony to ease off on their hardline '3D only' policy? Anybody hear anything about the why of it all?