diff --git a/lib/kafka/protocol/message.rb b/lib/kafka/protocol/message.rb
index 87477ec5f..06e91d4b5 100644
--- a/lib/kafka/protocol/message.rb
+++ b/lib/kafka/protocol/message.rb
@@ -66,13 +66,21 @@ def self.decode(decoder)
 
         crc = message_decoder.int32
         magic_byte = message_decoder.int8
+        attributes = message_decoder.int8
 
-        unless magic_byte == MAGIC_BYTE
+        # The magic byte indicates the message format version. There are situations
+        # where an old message format can be returned from a newer version of Kafka,
+        # because old messages are not necessarily rewritten on upgrades.
+        case magic_byte
+        when 0
+          # No timestamp in the pre-0.10 message format.
+          timestamp = nil
+        when 1
+          timestamp = message_decoder.int64
+        else
           raise Kafka::Error, "Invalid magic byte: #{magic_byte}"
         end
 
-        attributes = message_decoder.int8
-        timestamp = message_decoder.int64
         key = message_decoder.bytes
         value = message_decoder.bytes