"...this sounds to me more like EA deciding that now is a good time to get rid of some underperforming employees and several inherited offices"

Perhaps it is sampling error, but the companies that have downsized that I've known people at have largely said this same thing. There was some financial pain, and economically forced separations mixed in, but for the most part the recession seems to have provided a good political scapegoat to prune net-negative employees without the stigma or guilt of firing someone.