Yeah, that might be. But i think that TriAce could have decided to sell themself to Nepro even if PSN sold better, based on their problems in the recent years. But who knows. Hard to know how TriAce was thinking and looking at the situation. But i think it could be a good thing for TriAce to do the sell off, since then they might be given work for the upcoming years =)
If that´s the case, why didn´t it happen earlier? Why did it happen after a confirmed failure? With a potential big title in the works they could have had a better deal, wouldn´t they? I think it´s reasonable to suggest that the sell off was basically their last resort after losing a potentially important longterm partnership for the handheld version of the successful Phantasy Star games.