If any of those death threats was purposeful, then the rage over Sony porting FF13 to the 360 in Japan portends a deeper social issue. On the face, I would call it protectionism at the individual level, which has not yet reverberated into the upper organizational and societal levels. The Japanese economy has never fully recovered from the crash in the late 1980s and as such for a country in a multi-decade, prolonged recession, individual Japanese citizens will eventually turn to protectionism at the basic individual consumer level.
In the US, mainly in the Midwest, South and rural areas you will find people who find every chance to proclaim "I buy American" or "Made by America for America" or "Made in the USA." My maternal Grandfather was among these individuals who never bought a car that was not made by Ford or GM.
This case illustrates just how much some Japanese gamers do not want Microsoft or any non-Japanese gaming console to succeed in Japan. At all, just look at the VGChartz numbers for the Xbox and Xbox 360 in the Japanese market. Sony and Nintendo are Japanese institutions, thusforth any beloved franchise which is ported to a non-Japanese console in Japan is perceived as a threat to the viability of the Japanese video game industry. It is a threat because if the game sells well, then a non-Japanese company, Microsoft, will be getting a portion of the proceeds. Completely ridiculous, I know.
This is just how I perceive it. I could very well be wrong.
