That's the question. While "the internet" is going crazy over the price of OR I find myself celebrating that it is expensive as it is. But I'm also concerned about it.

So here's the deal.

Expensive VR headsets will ensure not only that it will include proper high quality hardware; good screens, lenses and sensors are expensive. It will also weed out most people who can't even afford a proper PC setup for VR to work and as such becoming unsatisfied when it won't work properly. Of course that significantly limits the early install base which isn't good for any platform that wants to sell a wide variety of software.

When the inevitable cheap knockoffs hit the market all the mainstream consumers will flock to them and fall into the trap of bad hardware that will most likely not satisfy the basic requirements for having the optimal experience, which will of course lead to unsatisfied customers and a very bad rep for VR in general. Unsatisfied early adopters will no doubt kill VR for everyone.

So who has the best chance for ruining the big VR wave?

I don't think it will kill it, but it will hurt it - smartphone VRs, specifically those that are fancier versions of Google Cardboard - after not long, people will have motion sickness with them and conclude that VR is crap.

Wiimote wasn't exactly expensive or optimal for the year it was released in. I think even lower spec VR can shine with brilliant design approach.

What killed motion control wasn't the fact it wasn't optimal, but the fact that everyone started to shove it into it in most unfitting manner possible.

Virtual Reality won't become a thing until quality headsets cost 200€, and for that we still have to wait a couple of years.

^Boom!!!

This will be the thing that REALLY kills off VR... For a while that is. Stupid cheap games with little to no actual VR approach to their design. I can also see bigger games that do nothing more but move the in game camera when you turn your head.

If it doesn't do anything exciting for gaming, people aren't going to want to wear the headset, it's an uphill battle. Also, watching a movie on a device strapped to your head also isn't going to help. They need actual VR experiences being made.

5 years from now this may be something really big.

If VR becomes popular enough to get cheap knockoffs, it would be safe say that it wouldn't be killed from them?

When it comes to VR in gaming, I doubt cheap knock-off headsets will cath on, so they won't get the chance to ruin anything. They might lengthen the time it takes before it achieves success with the mainstream. Obviously, something that is in the middle would be optimal, accessible price but still a good experience. Maybe the tech isn't mature enough to achieve that just yet, but it isn't needed, because VR isn't "meant" (by manufacturers) to go mainstream just yet.

Until we get decent enough headsets at a reasonable price, I think VR will just... be there.

Not dead, but not that active either.

Disinterest will kill it. If the content is bad, nobody will be interested, if it's good, people consume it in the simpliest way possible.

And what you're going to do with VR helmet anyway. Jerk off to a virtual orgy, while your kids secretly film it and post it to youtube?

Nah constellation will handle positionaltracking, home-security and live streaming on Facebook. 
PSVR and Vive just lock the door (and cover the front-end camera on the Vive).

Bad experience will slowdown VR (but it will never be killed), just like 3D-printing too important technology.