diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
index d7cfd1039..a1ad373b5 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
@@ -343,7 +343,9 @@ EOT
         }
 
         if (null === $stability) {
-            if (preg_match('{^[^,\s]*?@('.implode('|', array_keys(BasePackage::$stabilities)).')$}i', $packageVersion, $match)) {
+            if (null === $packageVersion) {
+                $stability = 'stable';
+            } elseif (preg_match('{^[^,\s]*?@('.implode('|', array_keys(BasePackage::$stabilities)).')$}i', $packageVersion, $match)) {
                 $stability = $match[1];
             } else {
                 $stability = VersionParser::parseStability($packageVersion);