The third annual MI6 Conference in San Francisco came to a close last night with an awards ceremony to honor the game industry's best marketing achievements. Chief among those were the launch campaigns for top games such as 2K's BioShock, Microsoft's Halo 3, Activision's Call of Duty 4 and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed.

Stand-up comedian Christian Finnegan hosted the event as Gold and Silver Muse statues were handed out to winners in award categories varying from major media-based campaigns to more imaginative honors, such as "Most Effective Attention Getter" and "Don't You Wish You'd Thought of This." In addition to the publishers for the top four winning games mentioned above, other winning companies included EA, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Hammer Creative, Midway Games and Vivendi Games.

New for this year, a special CGS Player's Choice Award (judged by world-class gamers from the Championship Gaming Series) also honored Blizzard's World of Warcraft for its unique television ad, Mr. T 'Night Elf Mohawk.' The complete awards list for 2008 will soon be made available on the official MI6 website.

"Every year, the MI6 Conference attracts more and more support and participation from game marketing, advertising and entertainment companies large and small. Through our awards competition, the best work continues to shine through and we're thrilled to be able to call out the industry's true marketing superstars at this special event," said MI6 General Manager Jill Lindeman.

She noted in a separate announcement that MI6 attendance was up for the second consecutive year. "We're extremely encouraged by the amount of positive feedback we have already received," Lindeman said. "It's both a testament to the strength of our speakers and to the importance of having an annual congregating point focused specifically on game marketing. The breadth of this year's content again spoke to the relevant issues that challenge all game marketers."