The Beatles’ Video-Game Release Gives a Boost to Medical Charity

“All You Need Is Love” may not be the most popular Beatles song ever — it topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week, far shorter than the seven weeks for “I Want to Hold Your Hand” — but the anthem could turn out to be the band’s most charitable.

Starting today, owners of Xbox video-game consoles who download the song to play with their new Beatles: Rock Band game will benefit Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity.

The song costs $1.99 to download. Currently, more than 20 million people use the Xbox feature, Xbox Live, through which the song can be downloaded. Xbox is owned by Microsoft.

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison chose Doctors Without Borders as the beneficiary of the Microsoft deal.

Microsoft is also raising money for Doctors Without Borders by auctioning 50 “special-edition” Beatles-themed game consoles. Bidding on the first of the game consoles had reached $4,350 as of 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

What do you think of the charity deal?