diff --git a/launch.sh b/launch.sh
index 34fea7b4..ab2829a1 100755
--- a/launch.sh
+++ b/launch.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-python3 -c 'import sys;(print("Python 3.4 or newer is required") and exit(1)) if sys.version_info < (3, 4) else exit(0)' || exit 1
 poezio_dir=$(dirname "$0")
 VENV="poezio-venv"
 
@@ -22,5 +21,6 @@ else
     PYTHON3=python3
 fi
 
+$PYTHON3 -c 'import sys;(print("Python 3.4 or newer is required") and exit(1)) if sys.version_info < (3, 4) else exit(0)' || exit 1
 exec "$PYTHON3" "$poezio_dir/src/poezio.py" -v "$args" "$@"
 
diff --git a/update.sh b/update.sh
index bdf1dc77..434f789c 100755
--- a/update.sh
+++ b/update.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 
 # Use launch.sh to start poezio directly from here
 
-python3 -c 'import sys;(print("Python 3.4 or newer is required") and exit(1)) if sys.version_info < (3, 4) else exit(0)' || exit 1
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 VENV="poezio-venv"
 VENV_COMMAND="pyvenv"
@@ -24,6 +23,7 @@ then
     $VENV_COMMAND --upgrade "$VENV"
 
     . "$VENV/bin/activate"
+    python3 -c 'import sys;(print("Python 3.4 or newer is required") and exit(1)) if sys.version_info < (3, 4) else exit(0)' || exit 1
     echo 'Updating the poezio dependencies'
     pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade
     echo 'Updating the poezio plugin dependencies'
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ else
 
     . "$VENV/bin/activate"
     cd "$VENV" # needed to download slixmpp inside the venv
+    python3 -c 'import sys;(print("Python 3.4 or newer is required") and exit(1)) if sys.version_info < (3, 4) else exit(0)' || exit 1
 
     echo 'Installing the poezio dependencies using pip'
     pip install -r "../requirements.txt"