Going on what I've heard from those I am acquainted with in the motorcycle media, the release date for the 'basic' model "could be as early as May 2017 in Europe and December 2017 down under". Yamaha are apparently trying really hard to push it through type approval and get it in the showrooms as a 2017 model. Yamaha are more than aware aware that buyers are chomping at the bit for this new model (and its derivatives) and will pull out all the stops for a late spring launch.

Hope your acquaintances are correct, Pleiades!
Everyone has been waiting in anticipation for too long now.
Obviously the bike won't look like the race version T7 - we need some space/frame for luggage at the back, and obviously road legal lighting, etc.
Looking forward to see the adventure version.

We'll have to wait and see. Don't be surprised either if the XT1200Z is discontinued when the 700 arrives. They simply aren't selling (50 in the UK in 2016, considerably less than half of what they shifted in 2015) and nobody is going to want one at all when presented with the alternative option: a funky new lightweight 700 costing �3000-�4000 less.

The other interesting tit-bit of information I gleaned is that Honda are working on a reintroduction of the Transalp in a new 700/750cc parallel twin form, possibly in 2018. There are several patents (chassis, frame and suspension) they have applied for which would also seem to confirm such a model.

All this would tend to suggest that smaller and lighter 70-80hp adventure bikes are being perceived as the next 'big thing' by the Japanese manufacturers. Maybe the days of the uber-adventure bikes are numbered... and people are finally beginning to realise that 'biggest isn't always necessarily best'?