BioWare is laying off 50 people

You mean be a good game? Oh, the horror!  

Thinking back though, Ironically, I feel that EA should've interfered sooner with Bioware especially with Anthem. They've surprisingly treated Bioware with kids' gloves over the years (I know microtransactions and all that, but it was hardly the worst they've treated a studio) but when Bioware management couldn't decide on a direction, it really lead to crunching and burnout. Sometimes you really need to kick upper management and force them to produce a game that you've invested a lot of money in. 

But still EA is corporate to its core and I don't like how they've treated long time employees as expendable. Sadly, they're not the only ones who engage in this practice. 

Most of Mass Effects writers had already gone - Walters, Schlerf, Dombrow recently, Hudson, Lemay, Cathleen Rootsaert, Joanna Berry, did Kristhanson just get fired? Then he's another one.  What Bioware looked like they've done is just gutted the writing staff, which raises questions what their future games will look like

I've never really thought that this overly melodramatic argument is especially effective or helpful to any debate. 

BioWare still exists and they will continue to do so for the forseable future. Indeed since the 'corporate speak' has reaffirmed their commitment to both Dragon Age and Mass Effect moving forward then this still means they have years still. As for the team there have been several people which have been there for years and reprsent the 'old guard'. Fewer and fewer, sure, but BioWare still has people in key leadership positions which have been with the company as long as Mary Kirby. Leadership which will continue to ensure some continuity as they train the next generation, hopefully, of BioWare devs and continue to ensure the companies standars remain. 

I have a question. If Bioware was using SWTOR revenue to keep Edmonton afloat, does this mean that SWTOR will be in a better place if Broadsword can redirect that revenue back into the game?

We don't know EA deal with Broadsword, it's possible a part of the game revenue goes back to EA/Disney more than if it had stayed with BioWare. Also, only about half the team went to Broadsword in the deal so they technically have less people. But development should be more stable, since now the devs won't be taken to work on other non-SWTOR things (which happened all the time when they were with BioWare).

Ehhh it's more of the old guard getting laid off rather than Bioware being "gone" but it's still sad to see. 

They have to hire them first. As an exercise I went to the Mass Effect Andromeda IMDB page and they listed 13 writers and I'm struggling to find 1 still at the company

EDIT: Sheryl Chee. Hooray. Hopefully they escaped the cuts.

No she was not fired, she was laid off. A deliberate abuse of the English language is not going to help this situation any. 

I think Patrick was listing all of Mary Kirby's written characters (Varric, Vivienne, etc), is my interpretation of the post?

Not that I have seen definitie news of Lukas or Sheryl, nor would either surprise me. Seems they want to save money by cutting the oldest aka likely highest-paid non-management staff. You know, very logical for a story-driven studio, cut your veteran writers and all.