According to Kotaku, a "reliable source" is stating that Electronic Arts has dropped Pandemic Studios' Brisbane, Australia office. But this isn't necessarily a case of staffers being laid off. Instead, the studio is said to have been "set free," allowed to keep its original IPs and equipment. 

Pandemic Brisbane was best known for their work on THQ's Destroy All Humans! (the good ones), and were rumored to have been working on the ill-fated videogame adaptation of The Dark Knight. The studio was allegedly working on a Wii title called The Next Big Thing, described as an "open world reality show" game. 

It's unclear how or if this affects Pandemic's Los Angeles studio. 

For the sake of discussion, my favorite Pandemic games are Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, followed shortly by 2005's Destroy All Humans!.

[Thanks for the header photo, Dan!]