People act silly over everything they care about, whether it be sports or loyalty to their employer (company men, woo!). Football fans surpass gamers easily though, game developers just get nasty stuff posted about them online. As for that abuse somehow hurting the games industry ? Heh, I'd love to see that.
Still, death threats are extreme and really too low rent. Much better to assault someone's professional ability in an insult, attack them to point out their incompetence at their job, etc. If you're trying to hurt feelings, wounded pride is a lot better than trying to frighten them.