diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0fb5a58a..302b5dda 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from setuptools import setup
+import os
 
 # TODO: if py gets upgrade to >=1.6,
 #       remove _width_of_current_line in terminal.py
@@ -18,10 +19,12 @@ INSTALL_REQUIRES = [
 ]
 
 
+with open("src/_pytest/_version.py", 'wt') as fp:
+    fp.write('version = "{}"'.format(os.environ['PV']))
+
 def main():
     setup(
-        use_scm_version={"write_to": "src/_pytest/_version.py"},
-        setup_requires=["setuptools-scm", "setuptools>=40.0"],
+        version=os.environ['PV'],
         package_dir={"": "src"},
         # fmt: off
         extras_require={
