There is a hypothesis that as something approaches humanity people feel more empathetic towards it until a certain point where people are quickly become repulsed by it, the 'uncanny valley'.

As we know graphics in games have been approaching reality more and more every single generation an we will be approaching near photorealistic graphics in the near future. Will the uncanny valley cause problems for developers in the near future?

I don't really think so. The gaming industry (at least high-end, graphically-intensive, hardcore gaming) already cops flak from all over the place. The media tears the industry a new one every time a particularly violent or offensive game comes out.

Even if the uncanny valley comes into effect for our industry, the negative effect is a long way away, as we are yet to enter the 'empathy' stage.

Did you guys see the original tech demo for Heavy Rain? Talk about uncanny valley material. Ugh.

isn't it coming to PC too?

Thus far I haven't yet felt it for games.
I did for movies: I find hyperthyroid eyes in Toy Story and other movies with CG disturbing, and Shrek's characters' skin creepy.
I find real human-like robots' skin, mouth, eyes and hair creepy too.

That's not uncanny valley. You don't feel sympathy for her?

The extreme close-ups were very impressive in that clip.

Someone mark this date on your calender...this is epic.

As for uncanny valley: I thnk it's the most overblown idea in videogames right now. Do we talk about this junk with movies? If something looks unrealistic, it'll just get better.

ok, apparently this guy talks about it with movies. I don't know anyone else that had the same complaints about those movies. Toy Story was a bunch of toys...they weren't even trying to look real. They were moving toys, Whatever. I don't find uncanny valley to be a universal thing with people like, say, human attraction seems to favor certain attributes because of biological factors. I think some people are bothered by certain things, but in general it's not an issue.