Indeed. When they hire based off who is friends with or has connections with someone, that tends to result in a clique group of friends who are not there just because of skills. It gives them a “corporate fit” in that they get along, but it turned out that ATVI was hiring friends of the “frat boy” culture dudes instead of just hiring based on open resume selection. So, they got a group with similar thinking who protected each other.
Hiring based on merit, not who you know, or who referred you, is a great step in the right direction for any business. Just doing that alone tends to result in a pretty broad and diverse group of people without even having to try.