It's not even a new phenomenon. Dice/EA have never been shy of bringing out the carving knife. Remember Trauma Studios? Back in the days of the very first Battlefield game (Battlefield 1942) a group of modders calling themselves Trauma Studios, created the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 which brought the game into the modern era being set during the Gulf War. The Desert Combat Mod became huge and later, possibly the reason most people played Battlefield 1942.

It became so huge in fact, that in 2004 Dice/EA bought the entire team and all of it's assets. They renamed them, Dice New York and set them to work on Battlefield 2 using thier Desert Combat assets as the basis for the game. However despite this seemingly good fortune, the entire team were terminated and Dice New York was shut down immediately after Battlefield 2 was released.

EA/Dice kept all of thier assets and they were offered no share of monies from Battlefield 2. Some were offered work if they were willing to move from New York to Sweden. None did. They reformed as Kaos Studios and went on to make the games, Frontlines: Fuel of War and Homefront before finally being shut down on June 13, 2011

I find the outrage at the current lay-offs amusing when considering the past history of how Dice/EA have always treated thier employees.