diff --git a/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi b/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi
index edc250f1d3..83a3d2fcf9 100755
--- a/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi
+++ b/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ VERSION_MAJOR=$(grep ^VERSION_MAJOR version.txt | cut -d" " -f2)
 VERSION_MINOR=$(grep ^VERSION_MINOR version.txt | cut -d" " -f2)
 VERSION_TAG=$(grep ^VERSION_TAG version.txt | cut -d" " -f2 | tr A-Z a-z)
 PKG_VERSION="$VERSION_MAJOR.$VERSION_MINOR-$VERSION_TAG-$GIT_HASH"
+# hack: empty version tag on release builds:
+if [ "$VERSION_TAG" = "version_tag" ] ; then
+  PKG_VERSION="$VERSION_MAJOR.$VERSION_MINOR-$GIT_HASH"
+fi
 echo $PKG_VERSION
 cd ..
 
diff --git a/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi-Isengard b/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi-Isengard
index 0721217e71..2f3f03ecb4 100755
--- a/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi-Isengard
+++ b/tools/mkpkg/mkpkg_kodi-Isengard
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ VERSION_MAJOR=$(grep ^VERSION_MAJOR version.txt | cut -d" " -f2)
 VERSION_MINOR=$(grep ^VERSION_MINOR version.txt | cut -d" " -f2)
 VERSION_TAG=$(grep ^VERSION_TAG version.txt | cut -d" " -f2 | tr A-Z a-z)
 PKG_VERSION="$VERSION_MAJOR.$VERSION_MINOR-$VERSION_TAG-$GIT_HASH"
+# hack: empty version tag on release builds:
+if [ "$VERSION_TAG" = "version_tag" ] ; then
+  PKG_VERSION="$VERSION_MAJOR.$VERSION_MINOR-$GIT_HASH"
+fi
 echo $PKG_VERSION
 cd ..