Axios

News of Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed Infinity" project got fans talking about the lengthening playtimes in the top-selling series. But there's no sign that Ubisoft or any other big company plans to make their new games shorter.

The big picture: The conventional wisdom in the games industry now is that the longer people play a game, the more likely they are to pay for additional content.

Gaming events are slowly resuming as vaccinations roll out and COVID cases drop. But discrepancies between how different organizers choose to enforce safety protocols are forcing some attendees to drop out.

Why it matters: For attendees who might be immunocompromised or have loved ones who are, events still pose a significant risk.

President Biden wants to remake the U.S. economy by injecting more competition into highly concentrated industries including airlines, Big Tech and agriculture to improve choices and prices for consumers.

Why it matters: The ambitious executive order signed Friday directs the federal government to step up antitrust enforcement and regulation. The move marks a sea change from four decades of a hands-off-big-business approach ushered in by Ronald Reagan.

President Biden has decided to become the antitruster-in-chief, today signing a sweeping executive order that could limit corporate consolidation.

The big picture: Biden is explicitly asking regulators to not only block new mergers, but also to consider unwinding prior mergers that were not challenged by past administrations.

The gym industry, battered by a year of pandemic-related closures and customer losses, faces an added hurdle as it looks to recover: the rise of home workout technology.

The big picture: Health clubs in the U.S. saw revenue drop by more than half last year. Meanwhile, Americans working at home started getting in shape there as well, Peloton sold bikes as fast as it could make them, and Apple started selling fitness subscriptions.

TikTok is rolling out a new system that will allow the company to block videos that violate its policies automatically when they're uploaded. The social network is also changing the way it will notify users when their content is removed.

Why it matters: TikTok says the new system will not only improve the user experience, but will help reduce the number of distressing videos (such as those with violent content) that its safety team must review, freeing staff to focus on more nuanced content areas, like hate speech, bullying and harassment.

President Biden is setting the federal government's sights on the power of Big Tech and Big Telecom in a competition order that will urge more regulation and enforcement against the sectors.

The big picture: The new executive order, expected to be signed Friday, includes over 70 initiatives aimed at promoting competition in areas of the economy the Biden administration finds a troubling amount of concentration — including technology markets.

President Biden will sign an executive order on Friday promoting 72 initiatives across more than a dozen agencies that aim to reduce corporate consolidation, increase competition and offer benefits to consumers, workers, farmers and small businesses.

Why it matters: It's a sweeping push to fulfill Biden's goals of making the U.S. economy more dynamic and fair, as the administration seeks to crack down on highly concentrated industries like Big Tech and compete more effectively with China.

The close relationship between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg was strained by the Trump era, the N.Y. Times' Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang write in their book, "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination," out Tuesday.

• "She became increasingly isolated," they write in an adaptation posted by The Times Thursday. "Her role as the C.E.O.'s second-in-command was less certain with his elevation of several other executives, and with her diminishing influence in Washington."

"Oh f---, how did we miss this?" Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked, looking around at the somber faces of his top executives, the N.Y. Times' Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang write in their book, "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination," out Tuesday.

In an excerpt provided first to Axios, the authors write that the executives met Dec. 9, 2016, for a briefing on what Facebook's security team knew about Russian meddling on the platform during the election won by Donald Trump.

A startup has developed an AI tool that can copyedit written text with an eye toward specific corporate style and potentially offensive language.

Why it matters: The shift to distributed work means employees are spending more time communicating internally and externally in writing, even as norms for what's acceptable in workplace speech keep evolving.

A new ride-hailing service in Las Vegas is targeting people who are curious about autonomous vehicles but aren't yet ready to climb into the back seat and let a robot drive.

Why it matters: Electric AVs promise to make urban transportation safer, more affordable and more accessible, potentially easing congestion and cutting carbon emissions.

Now that the ad market is booming again, all sorts of businesses are doubling down on their investments selling ad space.

Why it matters: Media companies used to be the biggest sellers of advertising globally. Then tech giants took that title. Now, in a post-pandemic world, every industry that has a digital presence is trying to build an ad revenue line.