My suspicion is that EA has relationships with all sorts of overseas shops that do things like testing, artwork, prototyping etc. Part of PopCap's integration into EA is leveraging these low-cost service providers.

Would be nice if the article actually defined head count. Is it just full-time employees in Seattle? What about part-time employees and employees in Dublin? If the artwork for a game is completed by a team on contract in Bangalore is the "head count" temporarily increased to include those workers? What if they're only part-time? What if they outsource the work to an even cheaper local service provider?

My point is "head count" is vaguely defined if at all. I think this all boils down to "we can do the work for less money with other people or less people."