Not knowing the details about layoffs, this might be another misinterpreted situation by the media. In the videogame industry, people being laid off after a project finishes is pretty standard. Unless they already have a project going on that needs the people or the company can invest in some in-house work, people will be laid off just because there's no work for them.
I doubt Obsidian was just counting with that money, knowing how volatile and not realistic the scores are in Metacritic.
All in all it's a shame, as even though every game Obsidian has put out has faced heavy criticism for not being "perfect" (perfect as in games from the likes of Bioware or Bethesda), they are still able to do decent games that entertain.
As someone said before, they more or less suffer from the same as Troika. Hopefully they won't have the same fate.