diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/BasePackage.php b/src/Composer/Package/BasePackage.php
index 526e9e0ac..786c58ae5 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/BasePackage.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/BasePackage.php
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ abstract class BasePackage implements PackageInterface
     public function matches($name, LinkConstraintInterface $constraint)
     {
         if ($this->name === $name) {
-            return $constraint->matches(new VersionConstraint('==', $this->getVersion(), $this->getReleaseType()));
+            return $constraint->matches(new VersionConstraint('==', $this->getVersion()));
         }
 
         foreach ($this->getProvides() as $link) {
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ abstract class BasePackage implements PackageInterface
      */
     public function getUniqueName()
     {
-        return $this->getName().'-'.$this->getVersion().'-'.$this->getReleaseType();
+        return $this->getName().'-'.$this->getVersion();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/Dumper/ArrayDumper.php b/src/Composer/Package/Dumper/ArrayDumper.php
index d13482264..123d0fa86 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/Dumper/ArrayDumper.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/Dumper/ArrayDumper.php
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ class ArrayDumper
             'distType',
             'distUrl',
             'distSha1Checksum',
-            'releaseType',
             'version',
             'license',
             'requires',
diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/LinkConstraint/VersionConstraint.php b/src/Composer/Package/LinkConstraint/VersionConstraint.php
index c8ae4cb5b..2590aa3df 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/LinkConstraint/VersionConstraint.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/LinkConstraint/VersionConstraint.php
@@ -36,8 +36,6 @@ class VersionConstraint extends SpecificConstraint
             $operator = '==';
         }
 
-        // TODO add third parameter releaseType and match that too
-        // TODO add fourth parameter devSnapshot and match that too
         $this->operator = $operator;
         $this->version = $version;
     }
diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/Loader/ArrayLoader.php b/src/Composer/Package/Loader/ArrayLoader.php
index 83a6e2051..69d67b5e3 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/Loader/ArrayLoader.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/Loader/ArrayLoader.php
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ use Composer\Package;
 
 /**
  * @author Konstantin Kudryashiv <ever.zet@gmail.com>
+ * @author Jordi Boggiano <j.boggiano@seld.be>
  */
 class ArrayLoader
 {
@@ -28,13 +29,22 @@ class ArrayLoader
         'suggest'   => 'suggests',
     );
 
+    protected $versionParser;
+
+    public function __construct($parser = null)
+    {
+        $this->versionParser = $parser;
+        if (!$parser) {
+            $this->versionParser = new Package\Version\VersionParser;
+        }
+    }
+
     public function load($config)
     {
         $this->validateConfig($config);
 
-        $versionParser = new Package\Version\VersionParser();
-        $version = $versionParser->parse($config['version']);
-        $package = new Package\MemoryPackage($config['name'], $version['version'], $version['type']);
+        $version = $this->versionParser->normalize($config['version']);
+        $package = new Package\MemoryPackage($config['name'], $version);
 
         $package->setType(isset($config['type']) ? $config['type'] : 'library');
 
@@ -87,15 +97,10 @@ class ArrayLoader
     private function loadLinksFromConfig($srcPackageName, $description, array $linksSpecs)
     {
         $links = array();
-        foreach ($linksSpecs as $packageName => $version) {
+        foreach ($linksSpecs as $packageName => $constraint) {
             $name = strtolower($packageName);
 
-            preg_match('#^([>=<~]*)([\d.]+.*)$#', $version, $match);
-            if (!$match[1]) {
-                $match[1] = '=';
-            }
-
-            $constraint = new Package\LinkConstraint\VersionConstraint($match[1], $match[2]);
+            $constraint = $this->versionParser->parseConstraints($constraint);
             $links[]    = new Package\Link($srcPackageName, $packageName, $constraint, $description);
         }
 
diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/PackageInterface.php b/src/Composer/Package/PackageInterface.php
index e6e1fc19e..ed7c08bf4 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/PackageInterface.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/PackageInterface.php
@@ -131,13 +131,6 @@ interface PackageInterface
      */
     function getDistSha1Checksum();
 
-    /**
-     * Returns the release type of this package, e.g. stable or beta
-     *
-     * @return string The release type
-     */
-    function getReleaseType();
-
     /**
      * Returns the version of this package
      *
diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/PackageLock.php b/src/Composer/Package/PackageLock.php
index 5e79cccce..e30ee3605 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/PackageLock.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/PackageLock.php
@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ class PackageLock
         $versionParser = new VersionParser();
         $packages      = array();
         foreach ($lockList as $info) {
-            $version    = $versionParser->parse($info['version']);
-            $packages[] = new MemoryPackage($info['package'], $version['version'], $version['type']);
+            $version    = $versionParser->normalize($info['version']);
+            $packages[] = new MemoryPackage($info['package'], $version);
         }
 
         return $packages;
diff --git a/src/Composer/Repository/PlatformRepository.php b/src/Composer/Repository/PlatformRepository.php
index a93e32bf0..64ae9bee4 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Repository/PlatformRepository.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Repository/PlatformRepository.php
@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ class PlatformRepository extends ArrayRepository implements WritableRepositoryIn
         $versionParser = new VersionParser();
 
         try {
-            $version = $versionParser->parse(PHP_VERSION);
+            $version = $versionParser->normalize(PHP_VERSION);
         } catch (\UnexpectedValueException $e) {
-            $version = $versionParser->parse(preg_replace('#^(.+?)(-.+)?$#', '$1', PHP_VERSION));
+            $version = $versionParser->normalize(preg_replace('#^(.+?)(-.+)?$#', '$1', PHP_VERSION));
         }
 
-        $php = new MemoryPackage('php', $version['version'], $version['type']);
+        $php = new MemoryPackage('php', $version);
         parent::addPackage($php);
 
         foreach (get_loaded_extensions() as $ext) {
@@ -51,12 +51,12 @@ class PlatformRepository extends ArrayRepository implements WritableRepositoryIn
 
             $reflExt = new \ReflectionExtension($ext);
             try {
-                $version = $versionParser->parse($reflExt->getVersion());
+                $version = $versionParser->normalize($reflExt->getVersion());
             } catch (\UnexpectedValueException $e) {
-                $version = array('version' => '0', 'type' => 'stable');
+                $version = '0.0.0';
             }
 
-            $ext = new MemoryPackage('ext/'.strtolower($ext), $version['version'], $version['type']);
+            $ext = new MemoryPackage('ext/'.strtolower($ext), $version);
             parent::addPackage($ext);
         }
     }
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Package/MemoryPackageTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Package/MemoryPackageTest.php
index 7176b8e4a..d61e97987 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/Package/MemoryPackageTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Package/MemoryPackageTest.php
@@ -18,11 +18,10 @@ class MemoryPackageTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
 {
     public function testMemoryPackage()
     {
-        $package = new MemoryPackage('foo', '1', 'beta');
+        $package = new MemoryPackage('foo', '1-beta');
 
         $this->assertEquals('foo', $package->getName());
-        $this->assertEquals('1', $package->getVersion());
-        $this->assertEquals('beta', $package->getReleaseType());
+        $this->assertEquals('1-beta', $package->getVersion());
 
         $this->assertEquals('foo-1-beta', (string) $package);
     }
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php
index b35452a7f..25bd99341 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ class VersionParserTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
             'parses state'      => array('1.0.0RC1dev',         '1.0.0-rc1-dev'),
             'CI parsing'        => array('1.0.0-rC15-dev',      '1.0.0-rc15-dev'),
             'forces x.y.z'      => array('1.0-dev',             '1.0.0-dev'),
+            'forces x.y.z'      => array('0',                   '0.0.0'),
             'parses long'       => array('10.4.13-beta',        '10.4.13-beta'),
             'strips leading v'  => array('v1.0.0',              '1.0.0'),
             'strips leading v'  => array('v20100102',           '20100102'),
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/FilesystemRepositoryTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/FilesystemRepositoryTest.php
index ee777b52f..eda202302 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/FilesystemRepositoryTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/FilesystemRepositoryTest.php
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ class FilesystemRepositoryTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
 
         $data = json_decode(file_get_contents($this->repositoryFile), true);
         $this->assertEquals(array(
-            array('name' => 'package1', 'type' => 'vendor', 'version' => '1.0.0', 'releaseType' => 'beta', 'names' => array('package1'))
+            array('name' => 'package1', 'type' => 'vendor', 'version' => '1.0.0-beta', 'names' => array('package1'))
         ), $data);
     }
 }