If you step down, you save face. If you're fired, the company saves face.

Though sometimes firing leads to the "Chaos at the top at Company X" which shareholders really don't like. Resigning is usually win/win at CEO level.

If the company cannot handle getting a C-level executive to resign, then it is well and truly screwed.

ESpecially since you're almost always a major stockholder

Nobody gets fired unless it's super ugly. It would have been clear that should they have another miss he'd be expected to fall on the sword.

Sadly, I've seen people get fired to cover for CEO mistakes.

By nobody I think he meant "nobody at C-level". Normal people get fired all the time, but if a company fires a C-level instead of giving him a chance to turn in his resignation, it's pretty much saying "this guy is completely unfit and horrific, do NOT hire him". If a normal person gets fired, it's usually for something normal and is not necessarily an attempt to destroy that person's future.

At Sun, they'd promote executives they wanted to get rid of to "Vice President in Charge of Finding a New Job".

Firing would have been a deliberate attempt on EA's part to tarnish his career. Stepping down is the nice corporate way of saying "You're a great guy but things just aren't working out."