There will be more broadcasters in the booth when EA Sports College Football 25 drops this summer.
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit will return to the college football video game franchise that will be released for the first time since 2013. He will pair up with his ESPN colleague Chris Fowler to be on the call for games. In most sports video games, there's only one broadcast team calling the games. But when the new college football video game comes out, Herbstreit confirmed there will be other teams.
"Chris and I won't be on every every game," Herbstreit told USA TODAY Sports. "You're going to have different broadcast partners for different games. Depending on the magnitude of the game, that will dictate who's calling the game."
Herbstreit's confirmation of different broadcasters in the video games comes as there has been speculation of various other announcers in the game. Herbstreit has mentioned it in earlier interviews but didn't confirm if it was true.
Daryl Holt, vice president and chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, said there are several details of the game − including on announcers − he can't divulge yet, but a full reveal of the game should be coming in the "next few weeks."
"The people that we've announced are the ones to focus on," Holt said. "This is college football coming back. It's not just coming back for one year. So there's an element to establishing the foundation, the first release of what we wanted to get right and focus on. So that's where we're starting.
"It doesn't mean there's not open opportunities for us to continue to think about the sport, the game and how we represent."
Holt added when the franchise was announced, "we got calls from people asking us 'Can I be in the game? Can I be a voice? Can I be a commentator?'"
"That was a huge surprise," he said.
ESPN's Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Jesse Palmer and Kevin Connors have previously confirmed they will have a role in the game but didn't state what it would be. David Pollack, a former ESPN college football analyst, also said he will be in the game. There has also been speculation that Fox Sports will also be involved in the game, which could include its college football broadcast team of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt.
Different announcers calling the action in a sports video game is something not often seen in recent years. NBA 2K has a group of announcers that will be on the call for its game in various pairings, while Madden and MLB The Show have one commentary team.
In the last edition of the game − NCAA Football 14 − ESPN was the sole network and there was a pregame show, halftime show and in-game updates in dynasty mode. Previous editions of the game also included "College GameDay."
A release date for EA Sports College Football 25 has yet to be announced.