I don't see the general public harassing female developers. It seems to be a fairly small section of gamers. And they're hardly targeting only female developers. Using these idiots to explain the lack of women in game development, when this is a relatively new trend only made possible by social media, doesn't really get to the heart of the issue, which seems to be the lack of interest in STEM topics shown by girls and women.
It's not a new trend. It's just more visible since we have Twitter and other social media.
I've been in the tech industry since the mid-90s. Sexism was endemic. One guy told me he couldn't believe I was a DBA because women were "too stupid" to work on computers. I've also been sexually harrassed plenty of times, two times that were egregious enough that someone got fired - and I don't like to make waves so no one even knew about all the other instances. Every woman I knew personally had a story about being objectified, belittled, or harrassed.
Now tell me again why women don't find these careers inviting...