HN user
akka-http and the rest of the ecosystem run fine on Scala 2.11, that's the status quo.
The question remains how well Scala 2.12 will help in migrating to JDK 8.
The Github activity of the scalac core contributors [1] [2] [3] shows no hurry on that.
[1] https://github.com/adriaanm [2] https://github.com/retronym [3] https://github.com/lrytz
Not to forget about Julia http://julialang.org/ and its high-performance JIT compiler.
A comparison with some of Julia's features:
(1) Multiple dispatch: providing ability to define function behavior across many combinations of argument types
Scala has the Cake Pattern
(2) Built-in package manager
SBT, anyone?
(3) Automatic generation of efficient, specialized code for different argument types
Dotty's Linker is on the horizon, https://d-d.me/talks/scaladays2015/#/
The other announcement[1] from EPFL last week was the establishment of Scala Center, which is already staffed: http://search.epfl.ch/ubrowse.action?acro=SCALA-GE
The Center's mission: "Organize open source projects around Scala".
About scala-native, no details are given on whether it targets scalac or Dotty (which another talk [2] describes as a couple years away from production-ready). The situation could change if, say, Akka or Play announced a Roadmap for Dotty.
[1] Martin Odersky: "Scala in 2016". http://files.meetup.com/18712511/Scala2016.pdf
[2] ScalaSphere: Guillaume Martres "Hacking on Dotty: a live demo". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOYGeZLHs4