Communiqué 90: The house that NAG Mag built

South Africa’s pioneer gaming magazine is bringing back its print edition, betting that it could be a collector’s item.

Oct 07, 2025

NAG illustrates how legacy media brands can reinvent themselves through strategic pivots, in this case from mass publishing to premium collectible editions.
NAG’s trajectory shows the long term value of building community-driven brands on cultural relevance and audience trust.
Like NAG, media companies can achieve sustainable growth by diversifying across different platforms including print, digital, and events.

1. The return of the NAG Mag

Every year for the last two decades — except for a brief pause during the pandemic — rAge Expo, Africa’s largest gaming event, has been the heartbeat of South Africa’s gaming ecosystem.

For three days every December, it transforms a convention centre into a temple. The halls are packed with product launches, hardware demos, cosplay parades, and marathon gaming sessions that run late into the night. You can test new games, join tournaments, or meet the people building the next big titles.

But in 2023, the convention offered something different. Amid the energy of demos, tournaments, and tech displays, NAG, South Africa’s foremost gaming publication, made a long-awaited return to print. For the first time in nearly a decade, fans could once again hold in their hands the glossy pages that once defined South African gaming culture.

The comeback was more than symbolic. For many, NAG was where their love for gaming began. Before YouTube and Twitch, NAG told South African gamers what to play, what to buy, and where the culture was heading. Driven by nostalgia, fans lined up to secure their copies, and the limited-edition magazines quickly sold out.

In a space now dominated by streaming and social media, NAG’s return to print felt like a full-circle moment for South Africa, a reminder that before it became digital, the country’s gaming ecosystem was built on paper, ink, and imagination. And for nearly three decades, this niche yet influential publication has been at the forefront.

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2. South Africa’s first gaming publication

When New Age Gaming (NAG) Magazine launched its first issue in April 1998, it filled a gap no one else had thought to address. At the time, there was no local gaming publication anywhere in Africa. The only options were imported magazines, like PC Format from the UK. The problem was that these magazines were expensive and lacked local context; the reviews were of games and gadgets unavailable in South Africa, and prices were listed in foreign currencies. For gamers, it was frustrating to read about new titles and hardware they could never actually buy.

The idea for NAG was born by a group of friends in a Johannesburg internet café, known as Cyber Nation. Gamers would spend hours there playing games and asking about the latest releases. One of the café’s founders, Len Nery, and his team realised there was a need for a publication that spoke directly to South African gamers.

A few months after the first issue hit the stands, Michael James, an avid gamer, came across a copy of NAG while visiting a mall. Inside, he noticed an advert for an upcoming gaming competition and immediately wanted in. But beyond competing, James wanted to be part of the NAG team. He sent a cold email to the editors, offering to write for them. James started as a freelancer, then joined full-time as an editor before becoming editor-in-chief and co-owner of NAG. Under his leadership, NAG began to take shape as the industry’s defining publication.

NAG had one key responsibility: to give South African gamers honest and valuable information in a market that was still taking shape. That meant deep dives into gaming culture, coverage of the early e-sports scene, and sometimes scathing product reviews. “If a product wasn’t worth your money, we said so,” Nery told Communiqué. “That responsibility rested heavily on our shoulders.” In that way, they earned the trust of the local gaming community.

At the time, internet access was slow and expensive, limiting access to games. Each issue of NAG came with a cover CD containing demos of the latest releases. For many readers, that CD was their only gateway to the global gaming world, and it helped grow NAG’s readership. “Our readership basically doubled overnight by adding a CD to the magazine,” James told Communiqué.

Beginning in the early 2000s, local South African gaming studios began to find commercial success abroad. Their focus on making games for international markets—which preferred platforms like PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox, rather than for African mobile audiences—attracted investment, partnerships, and skill development to the local ecosystem. NAG sat at the centre of this growth, connecting players, developers, and hardware makers.

3. A break in transmission

Recognising the role it played in the ecosystem, NAG set out to create a space where gamers, hardware manufacturers, and developers could meet face-to-face. The result was the Really Awesome Gaming Event (rAge Expo). “We wanted to connect the end user directly to the companies that made the products,” Nery told Communiqué. “At the time, there was no direct line between the people who built gaming tech and the people who actually used it.”

The first rAge Expo was held in 2002, attracting around 4,000 attendees. By the fifth edition, the event had become profitable. Today, the rAge Expo attracts over 40,000 attendees annually.

But while the expo thrived, NAG’s print business began to falter. The early 2010s were difficult years for media globally, as the rise of the internet disrupted traditional publishing models. For NAG, the challenge was particularly sharp. Its audience, young and tech-savvy gamers, was among the first to migrate online. At its height in the early 2010s, the magazine’s monthly print run reached 35,000, but by 2015 it had declined to 15,000.

In June 2015, NAG published its final print issue, officially transitioning to a fully digital publication. Just a year earlier, PC Format, the UK magazine that once dominated the market, had also shut down. NAG’s closure marked the end of an era, foreshadowing the collapse of South Africa’s broader magazine industry. The crisis peaked in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, when major publishers like Caxton Publishers and Associated Media Publishing closed up shop, taking with them over 20 magazine titles.

For NAG, 2020 was also a challenging year. For the first time in nearly two decades, the rAge Expo did not hold. The pandemic also forced a pivotal shift within the company itself. NAG and rAge, which had operated under one umbrella, formally separated.

The separation came down to a difference in vision. Michael James remained optimistic that physical events would quickly return, while Nery felt the recovery would take years and the business would not survive waiting out the pandemic. The two agreed to divide the company’s assets and audiences. James took Instagram and YouTube, while Nery retained Facebook and Twitter (now X).

Although the assets have been divided, the NAG brand remains unified. On the one hand, Michael James has transformed the NAG YouTube channel into a sleek digital hub for South Africa’s gaming community, complete with MKBHD-style product reviews, interviews with creators, and deep dives into gaming culture. On the other hand, Len Nery has led NAG back to where it all began: print.

4. NAG’s collector item strategy

Today, NAG reaches more than 400,000 gamers across its digital platforms, a far cry from what Nery calls “the dark ages” of 2015–2016, when the magazine nearly disappeared.

After years as a digital-only outlet, NAG’s limited-edition 2023 print issue marked a nostalgic return to its roots. Only 10,000 copies were printed, each designed as a collector’s item.

Len Nery is now betting on the collector-item strategy to rebuild NAG’s print business, a model that treats each issue not as mass media, but as a premium artefact for true fans. By keeping the print run small and focusing on high-quality design, exclusive features, and limited ad space, NAG turns each issue into something worth owning.

Building on the success of its 2023 and 2024 editions, NAG plans to expand from an annual to a quarterly print schedule, giving readers more opportunities to collect and connect with the brand in physical form. However, much of that will depend on the performance of the 2025 edition, set to launch at this year’s rAge Expo in December.

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