Originally scheduled for October of 2016 the developers have had to push back to a 2017 release date.
The Managing Director Gavin Pearce, of Playtonic games, is quoted that they could probably get the game shipped at the original time. But they want to take extra time to add more and polish the game. To Ultimately be a better game when it does release.
Those who backed Yooka Laylee’s Kickstarter will still receive a demo in July of the game called Toybox. It will not contain any spoilers for the game, but give a taste of what the game will contain.