diff --git a/CMakeModules/KiCadVersion.cmake b/CMakeModules/KiCadVersion.cmake
index be6607e470..77b08be1f3 100644
--- a/CMakeModules/KiCadVersion.cmake
+++ b/CMakeModules/KiCadVersion.cmake
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 #  This program source code file is part of KICAD, a free EDA CAD application.
 #
 #  Copyright (C) 2016 Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@gmail.com>
-#  Copyright (C) 2016-2020 KiCad Developers, see AUTHORS.txt for contributors.
+#  Copyright (C) 2016-2021 KiCad Developers, see AUTHORS.txt for contributors.
 #
 #  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 #  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 # KiCad.
 #
 # Note: This version string should follow the semantic versioning system
-set( KICAD_SEMANTIC_VERSION "5.99.0-unknown" )
+set( KICAD_SEMANTIC_VERSION "6.0.0-rc1" )
 
 # Default the version to the semantic version.
 # This is overridden by the git repository tag though (if using git)