Voice of the new EA Sports college football video game is from North Jersey
This summer, when EA Sports College Football hits the market after an 11-year hiatus, plenty of kids will be introduced to the iconic video game by their parents.
Only two, though, will hear their dad’s voice come through the screen as the public address announcer.
Tenafly resident Rich DeMarco, the longtime play-by-play broadcaster for Army football and basketball, lent his pipes for the role after successfully auditioning at the behest of EA (Electronic Arts).
“How do you say no?” DeMarco said. “It’s one of the great, great video games, and how awesome that it’s coming back. Just being part of it is so amazing.”
Raised in Leonia, DeMarco graduated from Rutgers in 1998 and is approaching his 20th anniversary with Army. He’s done public address on occasion but said voicing PA is “absolutely different” from his gig on radio.
“There’s a pace you have as a play-by-play announcer – you want to be quick, you want to be efficient and leave room for the color guy,” he said, and EA officials coached him on the less-hurried cadence they were looking for. There were plenty of nuances, starting with the deliveries for the home team compared to the road team.
“When you give your emphasis, it’s different when the home team completes a pass downfield for a first down as opposed to when the visiting team does,” DeMarco said. “We recorded every eventuality you could have for a football game. For instance, there’s a PA announcement for if a team lines up in the punt formation on an extra point. You have to prepare for whatever the user in the game can do.”
Without giving away detail, he added, “we got into a number of specific things that fans can expect from their home stadiums – that you only hear there. The goal of this game was to make it as authentic as possible.”
Electronic Arts shipped DeMarco the recording equipment, including a microphone, computer, mixer board and sound panels.
“I essentially built a mini-studio in my attic,” he said.
The recordings took about 40 hours to complete, DeMarco said. He credited his wife Katy for helping to keep things quiet – no easy task with two fifth-graders in the house.
Those twins, 10-year-old Matthew and Reed, have grown up around Army football. They’re eager to rack up some first downs when the video game drops – and hear the familiar voice announcing it all.
“They’re excited about it,” DeMarco said. “They find it to be pretty funny – and it’s something they think is really cool.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: EA Sports college football video game: PA announcer voice is from NJ
