Alvy Ray Smith
Smith and Catmull co-founded Pixar in 1986 with financing from Steve Jobs. After the spinout from Lucasfilm of Pixar, he served on the board of directors and was executive vice president. According to the Steve Jobs biography "iCon" by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, Alvy Ray quit Pixar after a heated argument with Jobs over use of a whiteboard. It was an unwritten rule that none other than Jobs was allowed to use it, a rule Smith decided to break in front of everyone after Jobs went "total street bully" on him and they ended up screaming into each other's face "in full bull rage". Despite being the co-founder of Pixar, Young and Simon claim that the company has largely overlooked his part in company history since his departure. For example, there is no mention of Smith on the Pixar website.
Disney's Animated Storybook
Jobs said that while Pixar staff enjoyed creating the titles, the studio chose to focus talent on films produced under its partnership with Disney, as that was "where our greatest opportunities lie". Ultimately, the "uncertain future of this market, combined with Pixar's enhanced opportunities to create longer format film and made for home video products under its new partnership with Disney, triggered Pixar's decision to redirect its valuable talent". The computer games operation dissolved on March 31, 1997 and no further games were made, while Kerwin was assigned to start a shortfilm group. Their first project, "Geri's Game", was released alongside "A Bug's Life" and started a trend of shorts being paired with films. Robertson Stephens analyst Keith Benjamin felt it "[made] no sense for Pixar to waste their scarce talent on CD-ROMs now that they have a better deal with Disney. They're going to concentrate on films because that's where the real money is". Pixar co-founder, Ed Catmull, told "Variety" in 1999 "we did the very best and only did fine financially" on the games, noting that the company spent as much on them as they did on films. When asked in 2012 if Pixar would return to the gaming industry, "Brave" director Mark Andrews firmly said "no" based on his experience at the Interactive Products Group, while the film's producer Katherine Sarafian said "I don't think we would consider it now because we want to focus on the primary business of filmmaking".