>>296407470
They're not stories. Valve hardware actually just has a lifespan. 
It's so bad I have to talk about the parts seperately. 

The good:
The lighthouses are solid. You have the rare failure, but it's rare. In vrg collectively we have hundreds and hundreds of the valve V2 lighthouses. I've only heard of one, maybe two failures. Good odds on these. 

The bad:
Lots of people have had headset issues, but this tends to be not common. Like 5%. Some people have had headsets come broken, etc. One part that tends to go is the headphones. Still uncommon to have issues, though. Hundreds of headsets, maybe a dozen or so broken ones. 

The Ugly:
The controllers. The fucking controllers. They're fine, except the thumbstick. The thumbstick will break. 100% failure rate. Between about 50-100 hours of use, the potentiometer in the stick wears down and the stick becomes loose and unuseable. It starts with drift, and then you lose range. Every single one. The only factor is how much you use the thumbstick. 
Shame since they're reasonably solid otherwise. Can take more of a bash than the vive wands, but not indestructable like oculus ones.

The headset cable also has a high failure rate. I hesitate to call it 100%, but after about 8 months of use it will die, and you will need a new one. 

Good news: Valve RMA might be the best in the world. Very little fucking you about, easy to get shit replaced.