Title pretty much sums it up, but allow me to explain:

I constantly see a lot of people that genuinely wishes that their "rival" companies (Like if they were actual enemies for them) fails miserably, goes bankrupt or in the specific case of gaming  the company goes third-party (If hardware dev). I see this on several places - mostly smartphones (Apple vs Samsung mainly) and consoles.

I can understand disliking a company/service/product/etc but I can not understand actual hate on them. Have they ever done anything really bad on you on purpose? Anyone can have a bad experience with anything, so if you had a really bad experience with the product/service, customer support, etc the hate can be somewhat justified, but hating on a company whose products you've never bought? Complete nonsense.

All companies have haters whether the company is succesful or not, their products and services are good or not, etc. These haters usually own a product/ use a service provided by a rival company to the one they hate (For instance, Apple haters own Samsung devices and vice-versa). In every chance they have, they express this hate by bashing the company as much as they can with or without proper arguments. Why would these "haters" possibly wish that a company actually fails? A major product failing, for a company, means losing money. If they keep losing money, they eventually will have to start firing people, right? If that's correct, then by wishing that X company fails you're wishing for X company's workers to get their salary reduced, losing their jobs, etc and I believe that's an incredibly evil and selfish thought.

So, back to the question, why do you think people can genuinely hold a grudge against a company so much?

People spend a lot of money on games, and especially when it comes to console choice, want to convince themselves they made the right choice with their investment, so hate on everything else.

Some people also forget how important healthy competition is and how everyone benefits from it.

I think some people just want their brand to 'succeed' while products from other companies they don't want or have never purchased should fail, just to make them feel right. Making them feel like they bought the 'best' product.

This is just childish BS. Personally I dislike Microsoft. (pls don't hang me) I never thought once about their gaming division going bankrupt or stopping. Something is just odd about that. Makes me feel like something is missing...

Because they are fanboys. This kind of stuff reminds me of someone on YouTube.

I only hate things that are influencing me directly.

That Xbox company for example. I saw an ad on a website with all green and it was next to another ad with all pink. That directly attacked my sense of color composition. And that's why I wish Microsoft would die.

I'm really sorry to hear that. Is your sense of color composition ok now? Or it has never been the same again after that? You should sue Microsoft, those bastards!

Anyhoo I think you guys are right. If you come to think of it, this happens only with expensive products which means that people efectively just try to justify their buys since they "can't" (Depends on the situation) own the rival product and so they are missing features which leads them to hate it because of the fear of having spent so much money on an inferior product.

I never understood this either, we want a company to die because its against our preferred one but no one seems to care that the bankers and CEO's of the financial companies that put the world in a recession is still free and not in jail.

My doctor said that with a few years of therapy it should be fine. I'm still afraid of website ads though. It's what drove me into the arms of Sony. MS is practically responsible for making me buy all those expensive Sony products. Not too long and I can't afford the therapy sessions anymore :)

Damn you, Microsoft! I genuinely hate you and because of that I totally hope you fail and go bankrupt!

I often wonder what goes on in the mind of a fanboy. I mean, if they see you having fun on a Wii U, do they think "Look at that asshole. He thinks he's having so much fun playing his Monster Hunter. He has no idea what fun is. I need to tell him how much fun he's not having. I hope Nintendo goes out of business and he DIES."

Makes no sense to me, really.